Three top civil servants have been summoned to answer querries arising from the disappearance of 4.7 billion shillings which was meant for the purchase of Bicycles for LC Chairpersons.
The three are the Local Government Permanent Secretary, John Kashaka and the Accountant General, Gustavo Bwoch. The identities of the third officer from Bank of Uganda was not readily identified by Friday evening.
The Parliamentary Committee on Public Service and Local Government is investigating the disappearance of 4.7 billion shillings for the purchase of bicycles meant for LC Chairpersons.
The Committee Vice Chairperson and MP for Igara West, Raphael Magezi, on Friday issued the summons to the three officers. The Clerk’s office delivered the summons to the various offices on Friday evening.
The three will appear together with officials from Stanbic Bank Uganda, to their role in the botched procurement process, that resulted into the loss of huge amounts of tax payers money.
The committee has confirmed that grave mistakes were made, especially in the failure to verify the physical delivery of the 70,000 bicycles that were meant to be delivered by February this year.
The committee also discovered documents signed by senior officials, in audit and accounts, of the local government ministry, confirming that the bicycles had been delivered and yet not even one bicycle had been received.
All the senior government officials from Bank of Uganda and local government have blamed Stanbic Bank for forging documents that made the fake company, Amman Industrial Tools and Equipment Ltd, get paid 1.7 million dollars. The entire money was later withdrawn in two days, on 15th and 16th of March this year.
But Stanbic Bank Corporation Secretary, Gertrude Karugaba, who appeared before the committee twice this week, denied any responsibility on their part for the loss of the money.
On Friday, Magyezi and his committee decided that all the four offices; Stanbic Bank, Bank of Uganda, Local Government and Accountant General’s office, must appear at the same time, so that the real culprit in the deal can be identified without transfer of blame.
Magyezi said the committee hopes to narrow down on the main culprits in this deal.
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