Asan Kasingye, the director of International Police relations in the Uganda Police Force, has been thrown out of the parliamentary adhoc committee investigating oil bribery allegations.
Kasingye, who is an Assistant Inspector General of Police, told the seven-man committee that he was appointed Interpol director 5 months ago and has no report about the bribery allegations from his predecessor.
Kasingye stunned the committee chaired by Bungokho South MP Micheal Werikhe when he insisted that all investigations on the oil bribery were carried out by his colleague, John Ndungutse, on special assignment from the Inspector General of Police, Kale Kayihura. Interpol is an international administrative liaison between police agencies of over 190 countries.
According to Kasingye, there is no Interpol file on allegations of bribery against the three Ugandan Cabinet ministers, Hilary Onek, Sam Kutesa and Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi. He says that the only time he heard about bribery investigations was when he attended a meeting of the police advisory committee where Ndungutse talked about the multi-national investigations.
According to documents presented in parliament last year, President Museveni directed the Inspector General of Police to investigate allegations that former minister of energy, Hilary Onek received 5.6 million dollars while Sam Kutesa, foreign affairs minister was paid 17 million dollars. The funds were alleged to have been wired through banks in Dubai, Malta and United Kingdom.
IGP Kale Kayihura appeared before the committee last year and confirmed that his officers carried out investigations in the three countries. It is now unclear under what mandate the Uganda police could have investigated bank accounts in Malta, Dubai and the UK without help from Interpol.
Werikhe, the committee chairperson says he will consider writing to Kayihura to explain the status of all the investigations. The committee is also considering summoning the former director of Interpol to answer questions.
