Members of Parliament recommended Tuesday that the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Stephen Kashaka and other senior officials of the ministry who approved payment of up to five billion shillings for the botched bicycle deal for Local Council Chairpersons be interdicted and subjected to criminal investigations.
MPs across the political divide were all united in criticising Kashaka and his team for openly lying to the country that the bicycles were delivered whereas not even a single one was received by the ministry.
The MPs suggested that properties of the top civil servants in the ministry be grabbed and sold to recover the government money lost.
Sanjay Tanna, the MP for Tororo Municipality described the bicycle corruption scandal as a broad day robbery of Ugandan taxpayers’ money. He said even the cost of the bicycles, at almost 170 shillings thousand each, was an inflated rate because even on the open retail market, a bicycle goes for less than 150,000 shillings.
Mariam Nalubega, the woman MP for Butambala, said the country was on a path of seeing corruption become an official habit by leaders and civil servants.
Alice Alaso, the Serere woman MP said that Kashaka should be arrested immediately before any further investigations are conducted. She said she had information that Kashaka had a tainted civil service record while working with Kapchorwa District local Government.
The Local Government minister, Adolf Mwesige regretted the corruption scandal of the bicycles and said he would support all the recommendations made by parliament. He apologised to the country and the LCs for the scandal.
Mwesige said he had already asked the Prime Minister to take action immediately the resolutions of parliament are out.
2.5 million dollars is in Bank of Uganda and has instructed the Permanent Secretary not to touch the balance. He promised to bring the Bank Statement from Bank of Uganda to prove his point.
The minister assured parliament and MPs that even Stanbic Bank would be held culpable for the suspicious withdrawals.
Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi said that yesterday he wrote to the Attorney General to take all legal actions that will ensure that the five billion shillings is recovered. He said he has also written to all investigation departments of government to take appropriate action against the culprits.
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