Former principal accountant in Ministry of Public Service Christopher Obey has refused to refund money which he allegedly stole belonging to pensioners. Obey appeared before the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) today chaired by Alice Alaso to defend himself over his alleged forgery of files purportedly belonging to former workers of EAC [pensioners] and paid shs165bn. The purported pensioners were 2434 in total and the committee discovered that they were all fictitious.

The committee put it to him that he was the very person who generated the ghost files for these fake pensioners with assistance from Peter Ssajjabbi who claimed to be the secretary general of the EAC pensioners numbering 2434. However he claimed that the files originated from pensions registry though he couldn’t name the person who gave them to him.

The committee asked him to save its time and refund the loot but he said he cannot refund money which he claims he never took. The committee is meeting him again tomorrow Thursday over the same shs165bn theft scandal of pensioners’ money.

In another twist, a renown   City lawyer, John Matovu, says lawyer Bob Kasango may not pay the 7.8 billion shillings he promised to refund because he is bankrupt. This came after lawyer Kasango was forced by the committee to refund this money which was part of the 15.4 billion paid to an alleged ghost law firm.

Matovu told the committee chaired by Alice Alaso that lawyer Kasango is totally broke and there is nothing under his name. He told Members of Parliament that they should be careful because the bank statement tabled before committee by Kasango could be a forged one. Matovu told the committee that Kasango is a devil lawyer who conned him of 12 billion shillings which could have come to him from government under the agreement he had with him. He said that Kasango’s accounts had zero balance on the several times he checked and doubts that he will get the funds to pay back. Matovu said that he has been hunting Kasango through police and court summons since October last year and failed to trap him.

He pinned Kasango for using fake documents purported to be from Matovu’s lawyer firm and procured pension money irregularly. Matovu told the public accounts committee that the order Kasango used to get 7.8 billion shillings was illegal. He however, confirmed to the committee that about 6339 pensioners were paid their pension out of the 15.4 billion shillings.

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City Laywer Bob Kasango

City lawyer Bob Kasango has agreed to refund 7.8 billion shillings which he had received through pension scam after serious grilling by Members of Parliament. Bob Kasango decided to refund the money after he agreed with MPs that he got the money through irregular court order.

However the Public Accounts Committee chaired by Serere district Woman MP, Alice Alaso, noted that although Lawyer Bob Kasango claimed to be the lawyer for the pensioners he had no list of beneficiaries inspite having an agreement with them to pay him 30% of the total bill of 15.4 billion shillings.

Bob Kasango named the High court judge for Masaka, Eudes Kaitirima, as one of the persons who demanded 500 million shillings in the transaction of pension funds to pensioners. He also pinned judge Kaitirima for signing on court orders that procured the 15.4 billion shillings to ghost pensioners. He said that the judge’s signature must be examined by handwriting experts through the directorate of public prosecution.

Kasango told MPs that as sure as day follows night the signature belongs to the judge. He also watered down the recording done by judge Kaitirima which was tabled before the Public Accounts Committee on the basis that it was tampered with. He stated that his meeting with the judge was 2 hours and 17 minutes  but the recordings in the committee is of 38 minutes and alluded that the judge must have cut out a lot of information .

Members of Parliament say that they will secure services of hand writing experts to establish whether the signature which procured pension funds to ghost pensioners was for the judge as insisted by lawyer Bob Kasango.

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Bob Kasango

Masaka  High Court judge John Eudes Kaitirima has pinned a senior lawyer, Bob Kasango,  for using a fake court order  to procure  15 billion shillings  for paying ghost  pensioners. The judge had appeared before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee chaired by Jinja East Member of Parliament Paul Mwiru defending himself against a court order authorizing 15.4 billion shillings to a ghost law firm, Hul and partners.

Judge Kaitirima proved to the committee that his signature on the alleged court order to pay this money was forged by Bob Kasango, saying that a third party would think that it was his signature, however it had a slight difference. He also tabled before the committee a sound recording of a secret meeting which was on request of Bob Kasango. He told the committee that after examining the request and found it  fake, he reported the matter to police in Kibuli but  was shocked to see that no action was taken against Bob Kasango. The judge said that Kasango should have been jailed long ago because there was much evidence pinning him.

In the same committee the Registrar in the Judiciary, Joshua Kisawuzi, refuted claims that he certified the payment of 15.4 billion shillings to this ghost firm, adding that this was a classic fraudulent transaction because at one face it appeared to be genuine yet it was fake.

However , the  committee through the Acting Solicitor General Christopher Gasirabagye and a commission from the justice ministry Denis Bireije, noted that the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Kahinda Otafire’s letter to the Ministry of Public Service directing them to pay this ghost law firm 15.4 billion shillings was irregular but not illegal. Gasirabagye and Bireije said that this letter was supposed to be originating from the Attorney General because this case was legal in nature.

The Members of Parliament on the committee who include Paul Mwiru, Joseph Sewungu ,Jacob Opolot and Gerald Karuhanga agreed to write to the Attorney General’s office to recover this money from Lawyer Bob Kasango.

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