Ubos bosses interdicted over corruption claims

Finance minister Matia Kasaija has interdicted Dr Chris Mukiza, the executive director of Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) alongside the statistics body’s board chairperson, Dr Albert Byamugisha.

Also suspended is Dr Robert Wamala, a board member, according to the October 28 interdiction letters.

Minister Kasaija yesterday declined to speak on the matter, referring our inquiries to Ubos.

“You ring the affected persons because you have all their names and they are in a better position to tell you what happened,” he said.

In the similarly prefaced letters, Minister Kasaija writes that: “Arising out of preliminary investigations led by the Inspectorate of Government into allegations of victimisation, conflict of interest and corruption at Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the Inspectorate of Government has directed me to interdict/suspend you immediately…”

In relation to Dr Mukiza, he added: “…the purpose of this letter, therefore, is to interdict you with immediate effect from the duties and functions of your office as directed and in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Public Standing Orders 2010.”

The minister barred Dr Mukiza from accessing office or travelling out of the country unless authorised by him, blocked him from handling any work or assignment related to Ubos, asked him to surrender all official property in his possession and placed him on half pay.

Both Dr Mukiza and Dr Byamugisha yesterday separately said they had not received the interdiction letters written nearly a fortnight ago.

“What do you want again? I don’t want to talk to you. Bye” Dr Mukiza said before hanging up.

Our repeated follow-up telephone calls to his cell phone number went unanswered.

On his part, Dr Byamugisha said: “I have not yet seen that letter, but when I receive it, I will read it and then take action”.

We were unable to reach Dr Wamala.

Mr Kasaija tapped Dr Imelda Atai Musana, the substantive Ubos deputy executive director, in the interim to superintend the agency that is responsible for producing official government statistics.

On Mr Kasaija’s instructions, the first major task Dr Atai undertook, fours days after her designation as acting executive director on October 29, was to interdict the head of Internal Audit, Mr David Ochieng, and the acting manager of Finance and Administration, Ms Florence Obiru.

“…take note that while on interdiction, you are not supposed to appear at Ubos premises without the clearance of the acting executive director,” she wrote.

Ms Obiro confirmed her interdiction, although she said she hadn’t seen the letter and was unaware of the reason. She declined further comment, pending her defence before the Inspectorate of Government. Mr Ochieng did not receive or return our telephone calls yesterday.

The principal accountant Charles Waibi and the senior internal auditor Alex Nkerewe have been assigned the responsibilities of acting head of the Finance and Administration and head of Department of Internal Audit, respectively.

Corporate services director Vitus Mulindwa is to oversee the Department of Risk and Compliance Management.

The interdiction of the five top Ubos officials follows a directive to Minister Kasaija by the IGG, Ms Beti Kamya, dated October 19, in which she noted that preliminary investigations in the management of Ubos provides “sufficient ground for the IGG to continue with the investigations to their logical conclusion”.

“Besides, public interest demands that public officials under investigation for abuse of office and corruption be interdicted from exercising powers and functions of their office,” the IGG wrote.

Ms Kamya yesterday confirmed that investigations into alleged corruption at Ubos are ongoing, but declined to provide details.

Our inquiries show that the Ombudsman acted after receiving a dossier from President Museveni through the Principal Private Secretary, Dr Kenneth Omona, on October 21 about alleged corruption, nepotism, abuse of office, irregular billing, and favouritism at Ubos.

According to sources, a whistleblower petitioned the President on August 10, alleging, among other things, corruption, victimisation and illegal suspension of employees at the statistics agency.

Petition details

Details contained in the 94-page dossier, a copy of which this newspaper has seen, chronicles 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.

We have seen a copy of an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) dated April 7 where one of the staff members received Shs4.9m for field monitoring and evaluation.

However, our investigations revealed that the employee who received the money works in stores department at Ubos and his job description doesn’t involve the claimed field visits.

Another staff member returned Shs6.3m on October 12, 2020 which had been deposited on their bank account.

Documents seen by this newspaper show that a principal accountant at Ubos later got back the money from the junior staff and acknowledged receipt.

He wrote of the returned cash: “Being recovery of funds to cater for [name withheld] who was erroneously omitted on the schedule of the field monitoring programme”.

In the petition to President Museveni, it is further alleged that Dr Mukiza made irregular transfers and promotions of staff, parachuting under-qualified relatives to top positions, and without board approval, in breach of an April 2020 Public Service ministry freeze on new structures.

“… all this was done to facilitate corruption as these were his (Dr Byamugisha’s) staff [that] he dealt with when he was a director. There is no single record of submission to the board for any single interview neither did the directors submit the needs as required in the human resource manual,’’ the petition reads in part.

One of the Ubos employees suspended by Dr Mukiza and Dr Byamugisha, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were victimised for exposing the fraudulent financial transactions.

When this newspaper asked him last week about the alleged irregular reprimand and promotion of staff, Dr Byamugisha said that Ubos board took the decisions based on management reports, but declined to share the grounds.

In the dossier to President Museveni, it is alleged that Dr Mukiza once colluded with detectives at the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters in Kibuli, Kampala, to irregularly investigate out-of-favour Ubos employees.

However, when the findings incriminated staff of the directorate of Macro-Economic Statistics, Surveys, Agriculture and Audit departments, it was shelved, according to the petitioner.

In another allegation about transport fleet mismanagement, it is alleged that top officials took money for field work they did not do and the whistleblower asked the President to examine the fuel accountabilities and the log sheets since all Ubos vehicles have tracking systems.

Cash scandal

In separate interviews, some Ubos employees acknowledged that money was sent to their bank accounts and that of colleagues, ranging from Shs4.5m to Shs6.5m, but some of the recipients declined to hand the cash back to top officials.