Sejusa wants ‘corrupt’  NCS officials charged

The former coordinator of intelligence agencies, Gen David Sejusa, has asked authorities to also investigate officials at the National Council of Sports (NCS) over graft. 
His comments come at a time the President of Uganda Netball Federation, Ms Sarah Babirye, has been charged with obtaining money by false pretense.  She was released on bail yesterday, having been remanded to Luzira Prison on Monday. 
Ms Babirye’s woes emerged after she accused NCS general secretary Bernard Patrick Ogwel of asking for kickbacks for funds disbursed to sports federations.
While Gen Sejusa’s comments, on the social media platform Twitter, came out as prejudicial to a matter before Court, the NRA historical was merely joining a bench of public dismayed by Monday’s charges and subsequent jailing of Ms Babirye.
“She also talked about the Shs30m kickback and they just dumped her in Luzira to silence her?” tweeted Gen Sejusa.

Ms Babirye accused Mr Ogwel, the accounting officer at NCS, of withholding funds to the federation. 
However, Mr Ogwel insisted that he had disbursed Shs425m for two tournaments – the Pent Series and Africa Netball Championships – in Namibia in 2021.
But Ms Babirye, a former Youth MP for the central region, insisted her federation was given Shs186m but Mr Ogwel wanted the federation to account for Shs425m.
“We want to fight corruption or [are we] just posturing? We are talking about embezzlement of government money after she spills [the beans], you bring two individuals that she stole from them? Coincidence? Arrest others too,”  Gen Sejusa tweeted on Tuesday. 
While Parliament is probing NCS, the Inspector General of Government (IGG) last month found that the accountability issues raised against Ms Babirye were “false and malicious”.
“Some of the alleged documents used to come up with the audit queries were doctored/fabricated and false, thus malicious,” said deputy IGG Patricia Achan Okiria in an April 14 report. 
“[Mr] Ogwel received Shs29,719,800 for the Namibia tournament which was not spent nor accounted for,” added the report.

 Meanwhile, yesterday, the State had no objection to Ms Babirye’s bail application in court.
 She was granted a Shs4m cash bail. Her co-accused, Ms Zainab Namutebi, 40, was also released on a Shs1m cash bail. They will appear in court on June 6 for the hearing of the  case.
On Tuesday, boxing federation chief Moses Muhangi was also detained over similar accountability queries. 
Mr Muhangi, who has often complained about corruption in sports,  has   backed Ms Babirye.
Mr Ogwel, however,  insists he has never asked for a kickback and that all his account books add up.
“I strongly insist that this is the highest level of falsehood, I’ve never demanded any kickback,” he told the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament , which is investigating NCS, last week.