Troubled Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) chairperson Sylvia Ntambi Muwebwa last week dodged appearing before Chief Magistrate Pamela Lamunu Ocaya of the Anti-corruption Court saying she was ill and was due for operation at Medik Hospital in Kawempe.
It later emerged that Muwebwa was not admitted at Medik Hospital as her lawyer MacDusman Kabega told the court with paperwork purportedly from the said health facility as evidence. Hours later, Medik Hospital denied having Muwebwa as their patient.
It should be noted that this was not the first time that Muwebwa was fooling and making the court look stupid. Her consistent dodging of court appearances has irked Ocaya who has threatened to issue an arrest warrant if she doesn’t yet again appear on October, 29, when the court sits again to deliberate on the matter at hand.
The Director of Public Prosecution (DP) on September, 16, 2020 released a charge sheet, Ref: E/297/2019, indicating that Muwebwa is wanted to answer charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, misappropriation of taxpayer’s money. She has also been outed by whistleblowers accusing her of tribalism and corruption.
Court presided over by Ocaya issued a criminal summon to Sylvia Muwebwa Ntambi to appear on September 30th to plead to the charges. Summons she continues to dodge giving different reasons for not appearing in court henceforth wasting court’s time and resources.
It is alleged that Muwebwa’s negligence led to gross mismanagement of the commission’s funds between July 2018 and April 2019. Muwebwa now joins nine other suspects from the same commission who were charged last year for corruption-related cases.
The CEO East Africa last month quoting prosecution documents reported that between 19th November 2018 and 3oth April 2019 Muwebwa conspired to defraud the government of Uganda a sum of Shs35m. The money was “purportedly for undertaking an audit exercise of Rural Electrification Programme in Uganda” which activity is said not to have taken place.
The Chairperson is also involved in another conspiracy to defraud charge, involving Shs9.4m. In this particular case, she is jointly charged with Mujuni Mpitsi, Agnes Edith Kamahoro, a Senior Personal Secretary and Olwor Sunday Nicholas, the Commission’s Undersecretary.
“Sylvia Muwebwa Ntambi between July 2018 and April 2019 at Equal Opportunities Commission offices in the Kampala District, being employed in the Commission as the Chairperson, neglected her duty of directing the affairs and administration of the Commission, thereby leading to gross mismanagement of the Commission Funds,” reads part of the charges preferred by the Criminal Investigations Department and consented to by Jane Frances Abodo, the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The anti-corruption coalition Uganda (ACCU), according to Capital FM Radio, picked interest in the case and urged the anti-corruption court to keenly follow-up the summons made to Muwebwa.
