State House probes fraud at ICT ministry

The State House Anti-corruption Unit is investigating a whistleblower’s allegations of corruption and mismanagement at the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, the unit’s spokesperson has said.

Ms Mariam Natasha Oduka, the Unit’s spokesperson, told Monitor that investigators visited the ministry office in Kampala’s Central Business District on May 4 and confiscated computers and mobile phones from some of the staff members.

“Yes, we raided the ICT house last week after receiving information from the whistleblower,” Ms Oduka said. “For now, we have not made any arrests, our officers are verifying the allegations made by the whistleblower. I will be providing details later.” 

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The whistleblower report alleged corruption and mismanagement during the development of the Parish Based Management Information System (PBMIS), meant to support the Parish Development Model (PDM), a flagship government programme.

The whistleblower also alleged mishandling of funds meant for innovation hubs and the National ICT Initiatives Support Programme (NISSP), nepotism, irregular procurements, as well as inflated and diverted costs of an advertising deal with a local private television station.

Ms Amina Zawedde, the ministry’s permanent secretary, confirmed the investigation in an interview with this newspaper on Wednesday. She said mobile telephones taken from her subordinates had been returned and that the ministry was cooperating with the investigation. 

“All the allegations levied against my officials are false and in fact others, like I employed my sister, are not true because I do not have any relatives working at the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance and whoever knows one should bring them,” she said.

“As appointed by the appointing authority, I am against corruption and working towards ensuring that, as the ministry, we are coming up with all measures to curb corruption and also improve efficiency of government operations.”  

Areas of focus
Investigators are looking at PBMIS, a system built and housed at the ministry to capture data of all households benefitting from the Shs1.14 trillion PDM project. 

The whistleblower alleged to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit (Shacu) that ministry technocrats had swindled Shs12 billion meant to build it.

Ms Zawedde, however, said the system, although still under development, is operating. 

“This system has been used to register over 50 percent and what we want is to register each and every household and get to know each and every beneficiary’s details. And this will help us to know who is eligible,” she said.

“I even offer to take anyone who would wish to come to the ministry and see this system physically; it is functioning. In fact I will soon call a press conference and show the nation this system and prove all these are lies,” she added.

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Earlier this year Mr Godfrey Kabyanga, the junior minister-in-charge of National Guidance, confirmed that the system was working.

“There is a lot of progress, we have collected data from so far 48 percent of the households and the system has started working; it’s only data-collection that is letting us down,” he told reporters during the launch of the Pearl of Africa Civic Engagement Academic Project at the American Centre in February.

The December 2022 Auditor General’s Report highlighted slow data collection for the system. 
“I noted that PDM baseline data collection was exercised only in 169 of 181 local governments and the exercise was incomplete and behind schedule at a completion rate of 41 percent,” the report noted. 

Ms Zawedde said the ministry was developing several other systems to digitise government operations and reduce corruption. 

They include an e-procurement system, where tenders are initiated, an education management information system, online business registration information system currently under use at the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, and a document record management information system.

“All these systems have to promote efficiency and effectiveness of government operations as well as transparency. These systems have been developed by our own Ugandan innovators because we have a lot of young people who are unemployed and we are supporting them through such initiatives,” she said.

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The permanent secretary also defended a more than Shs500m advertising contract given to a small local private TV station based in one of Kampala’s suburbs and denied defying a presidential directive to direct all government advertising to UBC, the national broadcaster. 

The controversial directive is being contested by private broadcasters including Nation Media Group, this newspaper’s publisher.

“No money has been diverted from UBC. The assignment that was given to that TV station happened before the presidential directive was issued. And this particular television and UBC have had numerous partnerships and have been running different government programmes together,” she said.

“We have engaged a number of entities previously; we have had different media houses and media management companies we have worked with under framework contracts.”

Other claims
The whistleblower also accused Ms  Zawedde of nepotism in recruitments and promotions, as well as irregular procurements – claims she rejected in an interview with this publication.

She added: “I see a lot of witch-hunt here some people are fighting others who are working hard but for us we are ready and have availed each and every information to the investigators and are ready to issue more information.”

The whistleblower also alleged mismanagement of NIISP, which was established in 2017 after President Museveni directed then-ICT minister Frank Tumwebaze to establish innovation parks countrywide and set aside Shs15b to support youth ICT innovations.

In response, Ms Zawedde said: “The innovation fund that was set up by the President is the one that we are leveraging on to support these innovations. For example, on PBMIS, each module has a number of innovators who come as companies. We are supporting youth in creating employment opportunities. We have also supported a number of students’ innovations in institutions across the country.” 

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The raid on the ministry follows earlier fights within the ministry over payments of pension arrears that pitted technocrats against some of the institution’s political leaders. It also follows a fight over the planned reintegration of projects into the mother ministry as part of the government’s MDA rationalisation plan.

Minister says
The ICT Minister, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre on Tuesday that no resources had been diverted from UBC. He, however, appeared to defend the raid on his ministry.

“These agencies are free to storm and to look for information anytime, whether it is police or Shacu, the [Inspector General of Government], the [Criminal Investigations Department], the [Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority], Auditor General and all these anti-corruption agencies,” he said.

Baryomunsi added: “They do not have to be moved by anybody; if they have suspicion, they can demand information from any government office to satisfy them that the way money is being spent is in accordance with state procedures and rules which we have put in place as government.”