The Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala was on April 13, the scene of ecstatic congratulatory hugs, dancing, and Jubilation. The court had just dismissed a major case involving the alleged swindling of Shs169 billion from the pensions accounts of the Ministry of Public Service in 2011. The money was paid to over 1000 fictitious pensioners. The trial started in 2013, but according to the presiding Chief Magistrate, the case was dismissed because the State had in the last two years failed to bring even a single witness to testify against the nine suspects.
The accused included former top Public Service Ministry officials, including then-permanent secretary Jimmy Lwamafa, former principal accountant Christopher Obey, and former senior accounts assistant, David Japins Oloka.
Earlier in February, then-Attorney General Peter Nyombi had advised the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to drop charges in a related case against Cairo International Bank which handled the pension funds. Nyombi said police had botched the investigations into the case. Police in 2012 had arrested six Cairo International Bank’s bosses.
Meanwhile, on April 10, the Supreme Court in Kampala awarded Goodman Agencies Ltd a hefty Shs21 billion (Approx.US$7 million) as compensation for 10 trucks it lost when they were confiscated by government security agencies. The award was criticised as excessive and has been compared to the Shs12.9 billion awarded to Severino Twinobusingye in 2012 in a case he pursued related to former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi.
To reap the rewards from Uganda’s court system, one has to be patient.
The Goodman Agencies case was lodged in 1996 and it was first awarded Shs14.4 billion in a consent judgement in 2005. Since then, an appeal was lodged and over the period, award sum has attracted Shs6.6 billion in interest at 24% per year.
In Severino’s case, he has now waited three years without seeing a penny of the award.
The pension scandal was high up in last year’s Auditor General’s report which showed that up to Shs 1.6 trillion or about 20 percent of all the money spent by various government departments in the 2011/12 Financial Year was either stolen, misused, or not properly accounted for.
Just two weeks before the Anti-Corruption Court ruling, on March 31, the AG John Muwanga had tabled before parliament his latest report which highlighted similar cases from 2014. Muwanga’s team audited 1,452 huge and small government entities and projects all over the country. It points out that cases like this have left the Ministry of Justice holding a huge sum of Shs4.3 trillion in contingent liabilities in cases before the courts. The sum swelled by 95% from Shs2.2 trillion in 2012. Read more
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