Ministry staff defraud government of Shs7.5b in ghost land

Officials in the ministries of Finance and Lands and the Uganda Free Zone Authority (UFZA) connived to defraud government of Shs7.5 billion in a bogus purchase of land that does not exist, the State Minister for Finance in-charge of Privatisation and Investment, Ms Evelyn Anite has said.

The minister made the revelation while appearing before the Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters yesterday.
Ms Anite sought the intervention of the Commission chaired by Justice Catherine Bamugemereire.
UFZA was set up by an Act of Parliament under the Ministry of Finance to establish zones where goods can be manufactured for export. A free zone is an industrial area where goods are regarded as being outside the customs territory and importation of raw materials is tax exempt.

“My lord, UFZA requested for purchase of land to establish a free zone in Buwaya, Busiro and the money was allocated to them. However, before the purchase, I received a letter from a whistle blower saying the land was located in a wetland and that the vendors, Mr Paul Bukenya and Mr Dick Lutaaya, were not the owners,” Ms Anite testified before the commission.
She then alerted the UFZA executive director, Mr Richard Jabo, who assured her that the said land was not a wetland.

However, Ms Anite said despite the assurance, she remained skeptical and instructed Mr Jabo not to purchase the land until due diligence has been done.
She further testified that when she left for studies in the United States, the fraudsters took advantage of her absence from the ministry and paid for the ghost land. She maintains the land on Block 535, Plot 326 in Busiro, Kampala does not exist.

Ms Anite said upon her return from USA, the President sent an investor to her to be given land to set up a plant to manufacture computers for export. She said when she inquired about the land, Mr Jabo requested her to speak to the Minister of Lands, Ms Betty Amongi, to speed up the issuance of the title deed.

“When I called Ms Amongi, she told me we had no land. She requested me to convene a meeting in her office with everybody who was involved in the purchase of the land. My lord, there was no land,” Ms Anite said.

Convening meeting
Ms Anite said when they convened a meeting, she discovered that officials from the ministries of Finance and Lands and the UFZA had caused financial loss to government.

After realising the complexity of the problem, she wrote to Mr Frederick Kiwanuka, the UFZA board chairperson, on February 21 to investigate the matter.
Ms Anite said when the Attorney General was informed, he recommended that UFZA recovers the money from the culprits.
She advised Justice Bamugemereire to investigate the matter and ensure the culprits are prosecuted. Justice Bamugemereire promised to follow-up the matter.

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In another development, the Lands minister Betty Amongi on Tuesday told the Land probe that Jinja West MP duped her into writing a letter advising Jinja Municipal Council to give 12 acres of land in Jinja to an investor to build a shopping mall.
Ms Amongi was explaining why she wrote a letter to the Speaker of Jinja Municipal Council, Mr Moses Buzitu, to consider giving land to Mr Thummar Mangalal Patel, the investor.

“The impression I was given was that the matter to allocate the land to the investor had come from State House,” Ms Amongi told the commission.
She said there were other politicians in Jinja who the MP said were in support of giving land to Mr Patel, but declined to name them.
She added that because of the backing from Ms Anite and Jinja politicians, she wrote to Jinja council although she did not know Mr Patel.

“I have a standing directive from Cabinet to fast track land for investors,” Minister Amongi said.
The minister appeared shocked when the Commission deputy lead council, Mr John Bosco Suuza, informed her that Mr Patel never applied for the land.
She was surprised that Jinja Municipal Council had given Mr Patel a freehold title instead of a leasehold for the land.

Mr Harsdad Baroti of Turipati Development Uganda Ltd sued Jinja Municipal Council in the land probe accusing them of reallocating 12 acres of land on Kyabazinga Way to Mr Patel yet he had a 25-year running lease.

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