Prime
Museveni orders spies to probe Ubos bosses
Officials at Uganda Bureau of Statistics are under investigation over alleged corruption. PHOTO / COURTESY
What you need to know:
- ISO investigators will scrutinise Ubos budgets and expenditure, recruitment processes, staff welfare and scorecard.
- Shs2b fraud. The amount of money allegedly lost through fictitious work during the Covid-induced lockdown at Ubos.
President Museveni has directed the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) to investigate top officials at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) over alleged corruption.
He also asked for background check on staff in senior acting positions to ascertain their suitability for confirmation or appointment.
In a November 12, 2021 letter, a copy of which Daily Monitor has seen, Mr Museveni asked the ISO director general, Col Charles Oluka, to gather intelligence on the alleged ongoing corruption scandal.
“…I am ordering you to gather intelligence report on Ubos staff, currently occupying positions in acting capacity to enable me make decisions on the matter for confirmation of appointment,” the President wrote.
Senior presidential press secretary Linda Nabusayi on Sunday said she wasn’t privy to the presidential directive to ISO since it is a security matter.
Ms Nabusayi referred us to Col Oluka. However, Col Oluka was non-committal on the progress of the inquiries, nearly six months since the directive .
The ISO probe comes in the wake of an ongoing investigations by the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Ms Beti Kamya, which was also ordered by the President in October last year.
The President’s reaction was triggered by a whistleblower who petitioned him last year alleging that the top officials in the institution were victimising staff and carrying out fictitious transactions.
The petitioner further alleged that Ubos’ top officials paid huge sums of money to staff to carry out fictitious field work when the country was under total lockdown.
Details contained in the 94-page dossier, a copy of which this newspaper has seen, chronicle alleged fictitious work during Covid-induced lockdown, costing at least Shs2b.
The money, according to the whistleblower, would be withdrawn on requisition by top officials and wired to bank accounts of junior staff who would then be instructed to withdraw and return the cash to the senders for sharing.
President Museveni through his Principal Private Secretary, Dr Kenneth Omona, directed Ms Kamya to investigate the allegations.
According to highly-placed security sources, ISO investigators will scrutinise Ubos budgets and expenditure, recruitment processes, staff welfare and scorecard and thereafter write an intelligence report to the President.
They have also interacted with Ubos officials to record their statements regarding allegations levelled against them.
Why parallel probe
Asked why the President ordered for a parallel probe yet the IGG is doing the same, our sources said there was no harm as long as both investigating bodies are working for the same cause.
“He [President Museveni] is the fountain of honor and can ask any anti-corruption body or security agency to gather particular information about any government agency or officer allegedly involved in unprofessional acts,” the source said.
The sources also told Daily Monitor that the investigators from ISO have made a breakthrough into the investigations, but declined to share preliminary findings.
The President, sources added, wants a thorough clean-up of the statistics agency before the next National Housing and Population Census, which will be due in two years’ time.
The last census was conducted in 2014.
Ubos’ acting accounting officer Kaudha Alizik acknowledged the ongoing investigations, but declined to delve into details saying she cannot discuss the organisation’s internal matters with third parties.
But some Ubos officials, who preferred anonymity so as to speak freely, said the ongoing investigations have caused anxiety among staff.
For instance they questioned the legality of the ongoing recruitment by management yet it is one of the sticky issues being investigated.
Ubos management issued a notice on April 21, inviting candidates for practical interviews for the positions of statistician and statistical assistant respectively.
The officials argue that the recruitment is likely to be challenged in courts of law given the fact that it is being conducted by officials who are under investigations.
President Museveni, IGG Beti Kamya and Ubos boss Chris Mukiza who court reversed his interdiction. PHOTO/COMBO
IG’s manager of strategic partnerships and public relations Ali Munira shrugged off claims that the parallel probe by ISO will undermine their work.
“As the Inspectorate of Government, we are quite ahead with the investigations. There can be no compromise,” she wrote in a text while responding to our inquiries.
Ms Munira didn’t reveal when the IG’s investigations would be concluded.
IGG summons staff
Daily Monitor has further learnt that the IGG on Friday summoned more 23 Ubos officials for interrogation over alleged misappropriation of funds during the Covid-induced lockdown, barely one month after six other senior officials were summoned.
This brings the total number of officials who have been summoned by the IGG for interrogation to 52, including other officials who were earlier summoned at the initial stage of the investigation.
Early this month, the IGG directed the office of the Auditor General to carry out a forensic audit on Ubos’ operations.
The IGG wants auditors to specifically verify whether more than Shs1 billion earmarked for the implementation of the third phase of the Energy for Rural Transformation (ERT III) survey was appropriately used.
It is alleged that some officials at the statistics body diverted funds and forged field trips for the survey even when the same activities had been carried out two years earlier.
ERT is a government of Uganda programme bankrolled by the World Bank. It seeks to address the key development challenges of low industrialisation, unemployment and slow socio-economic transformation associated with inadequate infrastructure particularly energy.
Documents seen by Daily Monitor show that the ERT III survey was conducted in 2018 with field data collection done between May and September of the same year. A report of the survey was produced in 2019.
Investigations show that though the survey was conducted and completed in 2018, Ubos officials signed a call-off order of Shs91 million on June 26, 2020, for the hire of field vehicles.
Besides, the money was signed when the country was still under the first lockdown when major activities were on halt.
This expenditure has since raised eyebrows within the statistics body, with some staff calling for a thorough audit from government’s anti-corruption agencies.
Daily Monitor couldn’t establish why the survey report on ERT III is no longer on the Ubos website yet it had earlier been uploaded. The same report is still on the Ministry of Energy website.
