The state house anti-graft unit in collaboration with the Uganda Police Force have arrested five officials of Bunyangabu District Local Government for alleged abuse of office and causing financial loss.
The officials who were arrested on Wednesday include Lucy Ikiriza the Principal Human Resource Officer, Yusta Asiimwe the District Production Officer, and Gerald Tumwesigye the District Agriculture Officer.
Others are Joseph Basaliza the District Chief Finance Officer and Elon Rujumba the Sub County Chief for Kabonero in Bunyangabu District.
According to Wycliffe Mukama the unit’s investigating officer, the suspects caused a financial loss to the government worth 140 million shillings.
Mukama says Ikiriza failed to verify false documents presented to her by three teachers purportedly being minutes of the district service commission and later enrolled them as government employees from 2021 to date.
Meanwhile, Basalaza is accused of conniving with Asiimwe and Tumwesigye to falsify the accountability of 90 million shillings meant for the Agriculture Development Cluster Program. The funds were meant for communication and sensitization of farmers to improve production and productivity for coffee and maize in the agricultural value chain.
Mukama said the police and a team from the unit are now hunting for three teachers who forged the minute extract.
The LCV Chairperson Bunyangabu James Ategeka Mugarama says the arrest of the district officials will act as a deterrent measure to curtail the financial indiscipline among public servants in the district.
