Seven officials from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) were arraigned before the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo on June 14th, 2023 by the Inspectorate of Government (IGG) on 12 charges of; Causing financial loss, embezzlement, and abuse of office.
These officials are Mr. Geoffrey Seremba, the Under Secretary/Finance and Administration is the Accounting Officer of the Ministry and currently working as the Acting Permanent Secretary, but he is on the run to avoid conviction. Mr. Deogratius Masagazi, the Under Secretary/Pacification and Development who always approve fake programs under Karamoja Affairs; Mr. Tonny Ameny Emmy – the Assistant Commissioner who took UGX 225,500,000; Ms. Barbara Asasira, the Principal Assistant/Secretary Karamoja Affairs who was found to have taken UGX 538,526,000; Mr. Joshua Abaho, the Senior Assistant Secretary and PA to the Minister of Karamoja Affairs was given UGX 2.4 Billion, Mr. Samuel Ofungi, the Senior Assistant Secretary/OPM Programs was given UGX 25,475,000 while Mr. Peter Amodoi, the Program Officer/Pacification was given UGX 308,000,000.
In a twist of events, reliable information from sources familiar with the investigation within the IGG office indicate that a top female official has been approached by one of the flamboyant long serving Kampala male MPs to broker a deal on behalf of OPM staff.
The male MP who is familiar with the IGG official is said to have offered her UGX 800 Million such that the IGG can drop the charges against the OPM officials so that they can go back to their offices with a promise of paying back the money in 5 years.
According to reports obtained, OPM Staff including the Ag. Permanent Secretary Mr. Geoffrey Seremba who is on the run are willing to mobilise the money for the IGG official, if it can guarantee them their freedom and a return to the posh OPM offices.
We’ve further learnt that there is a lot of frustration among the officials because this kind of a deal upsets all the steps taken to fight corruption within the government.
This would be the second time IGG has negotiated with culprits and left them in their office like it happened with the Ministry of Agriculture when UGX 9 Billion for running agricultural institutes was shared by a few staff during the Covid-19 lockdown and also the staff of UBOS who had embezzled UGX 1 Billion and all back to their offices.
This is a breaking story, More details to follow in our subsequent series to come!
