Uganda’s Parliament has adopted recommendations in the report of the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (Cosase) on the report of the Auditor General on the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) for the 2020/2021 Financial Year.
The recommendations include the investigation of Beti Olive Namisango Kamya, the current Inspector General of Government (IGG) and the former minister of lands, housing and urban development.
During today, Thursday, August 04’s plenary session, Cosase chairperson Joel Ssenyonyi, who is also the Nakawa West MP and the National Unity Platform (NUP) spokesperson, presented his committee’s findings on the report of the Auditor General on ULC.
The committee observed that the supplementary budget of Sh10.62bn which was supposed to pay land claimants had been received and spent by ULC even when the commission did not initiate the request for the said money contrary to the Public Finance Management Act.
Cosase also faulted ULC of paying a supplementary to the tune of Shs21.25bn to Church of Uganda, which money was not requested by the commission in the first place as required by the relevant laws. The committee boss observed that ULC
disbursed money which was not meant for them and this was procedurally improper.”
The Cosase report has now recommended tough punitive action action those involved in the ULC corruption saga, including now IGG Beti Kamya. So shocking was the recommendation to investigate Kamya that when Ssenyonyi had finished reading his committee report, Speaker Anita Annet Among wondered: “I’m just trying to understand, who should investigate the IGG?”
The committee wants Barbara Imaryo, the then ULC accounting officer, and Siraje Isabirye, the head of accounts, to be prosecuted for attempted fraud of Shs15n after failing to adjust the financial statements as advised by the Auditor General. The Committee also recommended that Imaryo and Isabirye face prosecution over embezzlement of Shs3.966bn and that they should be forced to cough the money.
Ssenyonyi’s committee also recommended that lawyers from Lubega, Buzibira and Company Advocates be prosecuted for aiding the fraudulent transaction that led to the illegal payment of Shs2.039bn to a Natalia Namuli, one of the land claimants.
Kamya was put on the list of those who should be investigated for her involvement in the commencement and approval of the payment of Shs10.62bn to land claimants.
Others who Ssenyonyi and his colleagues want to be investigated include finance minister Matia Kasaija and Patrick Ocailap, the deputy permanent secretary of the finance ministry and deputy secretary to the treasury.
It should be remembered that on one of the days in May 2022 when Beti Kamya was supposed to appear before Ssenyonyi’s committee over the ULC corruption saga, her daughter told the Cosase boss that the IGG had been rushed to hospital. (Read Story Here).
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