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Eight Bukwo District senior officials arrested over corruption
Mr Samuel Mpimbaza Hashaka, the Bukwo Resident District Commissioner (left) with the DPC Samson Lubega and the district chairperson, Mr Julius Chelimo during the monitoring of min-irrigation project in Senendet sub county on Friday. Photo | Micheal Woniala
What you need to know:
- The arrested officials include; the assistant Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Ms Catherine Cheptanui, the District Education Officer, Mr Fred Sokuton Twalla, the District Community Development Officer, Mr Francis Cherotwo, and the District Commercial Officer Mr Tom Toskin.
Police in Bukwo District in Sebei sub-region have arrested eight senior district officials over allegations of embezzling funds under the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (Nusaf) programme.
The arrested officials include; the assistant Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Ms Catherine Cheptanui, the District Education Officer, Mr Fred Sokuton Twalla, the District Community Development Officer, Mr Francis Cherotwo, and the District Commercial Officer Mr Tom Toskin.
Others are; Mr Andrew Bukose, the Chief Financial Officer, and three sub-county chiefs including Mr Dan Munerya, Mr Benson Munerya, Ben Sabila of Amanang, Senendet, and Bukwo sub-counties respectively.
Police said the prime suspects including the Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Swaibu Balaba, Nusaf Desk Officer Jonah Chewere, and Mr Stephen Sigor Mella, the Natural Resource Officer are still at large.
Mr Fredmark Chesang, the Sipi regional police spokesperson confirmed the arrests saying the suspects created ghost projects in several sub-counties to swindle the money.
"We have arrested eight senior district officials so far and we have them in our custody at Bukwo Central Police Station for embezzling NUSAF funds. This was after they declined persistent summons to appear before police for questioning. Other suspects are still on the run but we are hunting for them,” he said.
Mr Samuel Mpimbaza Hashaka, the Bukwo Resident District Commissioner, said he ordered the arrest of the officials after discovering that ghost projects under NUSAF valued at Shs700 million were opened under their names.
“There are over 10 ghost min-irrigation projects that we unearthed and the officials were responsible. I was given a report by the former RDC indicating that Bukwo had got a big number of ghost projects under Nusaf, so we did joint monitoring and we found that there were indeed ghost government projects,” he said.
Mr Mpimbaza added that corruption has tremendously affected service delivery in the district since it was created a few years ago.
