Parliament has tasked the ministry of public service and local government to explain why pensioners have not been paid for the months of July and August. The matter was brought forward as a matter of national importance by Mbarara Municipality Member of Parliament Medard Bitekyerezo who told parliament that these pensioners have aged and most of them have diseases that need daily medication and the delay in their pension affects them.

Bitekyerezo stated that pensioners have approached the Ministry of public service but have been sent to the Ministry of finance. He demanded government, through the Ministries of finance and public service, to explain where the money is for the senior servant to avoid past incidents where officials from this Ministry have been sighted in swindling pensioner’s money.

The woman MP for Sheema district, Rosemary Nyakikongoro, said that on her recent visit to the constituency, she got lots of complaints on pension. She said that pensioners are being lied to that the delay is because of restructuring and change in payment procedures.

However, Minister of state for planning in finance David Bahati, answering on government’s behalf told Parliament that the delay has been brought up due to the transfer of money to different votes. He said that  past process was abandoned due to short coming that included inefficiency and the presence of ghost pensioners.

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Former principal accountant with Ministry of Public Service Christopher Obey

The former principal accountant with Ministry of Public Service Christopher Obey has been handed over to   police CID at parliament by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over failure to account for 155 billion shillings which was allegedly paid to ghost pensioners. Obey was detained on orders of PAC chaired by the woman MP for Serere county, Alice Alaso, after they discovered that Mr. obey did not hand over the files of the names ,he based on to pay ghost pensioners to the pension service registry.

The senior Records officer Pensions Registry with the Ministry of Public Service Doreen Onyango pinned Obey before the committee that he did not hand in alleged ghost files to registry as normal practice which caused 2434 pensioners to miss their pension payments from 2009 to 2011. Onyango told the committee she used a computer system and physically searched for the files used to clear ghost pension but did not exist though Mr. Obey was insisting that he handed over the files to registry.

Members of Parliament said that they are convinced Mr. Obey is liable for payment of ghost pensioners because he was the only one who authorized and created ghost file names of pensioners

At the beginning of the committee proceedings Christopher Obey failed to stop his interrogation over the payment of ghost pensioners. Obey had asked the committee to stop the proceedings saying that the same case was in court and his answer to the committee will compromise his defence in court. He said that the people who sued him are taking advantage of the committee hearings and will use his answers to defeat him in court.

However  MPs including Alice Alaso, Gerald Karuhanga, Martin Muzale and Emma Boona said that obey is just using the case as an excuse to stop the proceedings which the committee will not do. They say court has not yet set the date and time for hearing the case and therefore as the committee they know that what they are doing is not sub judicial to the courts. They said that unless the attorney general writes to the committee they will not stop the proceedings.

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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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