The State House Anti Corruption Unit (SHACU) on Wednesday arrested two officials of the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board (DAPCB) over alleged forgery, obtaining money by pretense, and conspiracy to commit a felony.

It is alleged that George William Bizibu, 55, the executive secretary of the board, and John Byagagaire, 35, a senior accountant, defrauded various people of money promising to allocate them property belonging to the board.

Investigation Report

According to ongoing investigations into alleged extortion and fraud within the board, the SHACU detectives have unearthed a series of suspected fraudulent and dubious transactions, where the two officials and others still at large allegedly defrauded people using a syndicated group that issues allocation letters and receipts.

A source from the unit indicated that a pile of files following numerous complaints was being processed against Bizibu and Byagagaire and others still at large.

The source said the arrests had opened a can of worms leading to a series of complaints by several victims who have allegedly defrauded through fictitious double allocations of properties.

Charge sheet

According to the charge sheet, Bizibu, on December 20, 2020, at Kampala, to defraud, allegedly obtained sh5m from Rebecca Mugisha Kabugo purporting that he was going to allocate her a property under the DAPCB comprised in Plot 6/8 Kibira Road, whereas not.

In another count, it is alleged that Bizibu and others still at large forged a DAPCB temporary allocation letter in the same names purporting that it was authentically issued, whereas not.

Byagagaire and others still at large, in count three, are accused of forgery.

It is alleged that between August and September 2020, they forged the board’s receipts in the names of Rebekah Mugisha Kabugo for the same property.

The two were arrested from their office located in the Ambassador House building on Kampala Road and later detained in the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) cells after writing a statement at the SHACU offices. They are expected to be arraigned in the KCCA court today (Friday).

In March 2022, President Yoweri Museveni directed DAPCB to fast-track the recovery of numerous properties formerly under the management of the board but believed to have been fraudulently taken over or sold off to individuals by corrupt officials.

Parliament was also concerned that some of the properties for which the Government had compensated the owners were repossessed by the same people.

The Auditor General raised a red flag over the repossession of property by unknown claimants that were compensated for by the Government.

Anti-Corruption Unit Speaks out

Sandor Walusimbi, the State House Anti-Corruption Unit spokesperson, confirmed the arrest and said the two would appear in court today.

According to Walusimbi, one of the complainants against the two officials is an MP who was allegedly defrauded of over sh2b after he was promised to be allocated property and was issued with receipts, which promise was not fulfilled.

He said many complaints were coming from Jinja where many Asian families left behind the property.