Africa-Press – Uganda. Parliament’s committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprise (Cosase) has summoned the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities Mrs Doreen Katusiime, the chairperson of the Association of Uganda Tour Operators, Ms Civy Tumusiime, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) board members and game park waders to answer queries surrounding the gorilla permit fraud which hit the Authority in 2023.
The summon follows UWA Executive Director, Mr Sam Mwandha’s revelation to Cosase members on February 21 that information regarding the gorilla and Chimpanzee permit fraud was brought to his attention by Ms Katusiime, game park waders and Ms Tumusiime.
“I got to know about the [gorilla permit] fraud from a number of people within UWA and Ministry of Tourism. This was particularly the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, the chairperson of tourism operators and Yusuf Asiimwe, a game park wader,” Mr Mwandha said.
Against Mr Mwandha’s submission, Cosase Chairperson, Mr Medard Ssegona reasoned that all the mentioned members should appear together with the UWA officials before the committee next week for further inquiry.
“In our next meeting, please come with Ms Doreen Katusiime, Ms Civy Tumusiime, two UWA board members including the chairperson and all waders at different national parks,” Mr Ssegona said.
Mr Mwandha told that although he would like to protect the identity of his whistleblowers, he could not defy the directive of the committee having taken an oath of allegiance.
The fraud at UWA was first brought to the attention of the public, prompting investigations by the police and the Office of the Auditor General later launched a forensic investigation into syndicated fraud which led to the loss of public funds.
Equally, UWA launched an internal audit to ascertain the magnitude of the financial loss and according to Mr Mwandha, “the internal audit established that at least Shs500m” was lost in the fraud which left at least four UWA staff dismissed, one expelled and several others still under investigations.
This Publication has also learnt that the four members who were dismissed have appealed and their cases are pending hearing.
“Unfortunately, all the four dismissed staff appealed, until their case is put to a hearing, the authority cannot take further actions against them,” Mr Mwandha said.
Fund recovery
The committee further questioned UWA officials to reveal the available fund recovery plan from the implicated officials.
Mr Eddie Kwizera, Bukimbiri county legislator emphasised that; “dismissal of the implicated staff is not enough. UWA should tell us the available mechanisms to recover the lost funds from these staff.”
Mr Jimmy Mugisa, the Director of Finance at UWA noted that the Authority’s human resource manual gives powers to the management to withhold money in form of benefits to the affected employees.
“The employees are entitled to gratuities, insurance bills and other benefits. Under the human resource manual the authority can use funds meant for such benefits to recover the lost funds,” he said.
“However, this money may not be enough and it is one of the reasons why we opened up criminal cases so that the court can offer more guidance on how to handle the recovery process,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mr Mwandha together with other UWA officials who included Mr Edward Yiga (internal auditor), Mr Jimmy Mugisa (director of finance) and Mr John Okot (head of investigation) had difficulty in explaining the source of Shs368m shillings which the Authority paid to URA as staffs’ Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax.
Among others, UWA officials also could not explain how they failed to collect outstanding debts from companies like Airtel, MTN, URA, and Uganda Telecom which have accumulated close to Shs1 billion.
“We need to be serious. Next time you come here, give us an update on this. How can you be paying to URA and in turn you can’t pick what belongs to you? If you need help I can call the URA director, Airtel and MTN managers so that they can pay you from here,” Mr Ssegona said.
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