Police summon PS Ssali over cooperatives compensation
Ministry of Trade PS Geraldine Ssali. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Ms Ssali, along with the team which worked on the compensation exercise, are supposed to appear at the Criminal Investigations Directorate in Kibuli, Kampala today
- Ms Ssali says the payments were made before she became the Trade Ministry accounting officer
- The Members of Parliament recommended that Ms Ssali and other public servants be interdicted to pave the way for investigations.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Ms Geraldine Ssali, and her team have been summoned by the police in connection to the ongoing investigations into the Shs164b compensation for cooperatives affected by previous wars.
This comes a day after the chairman of the Parliament budget committee and clerks appeared before detectives over the same.
Ms Ssali, along with the team which worked on the compensation exercise, are supposed to appear at the Criminal Investigations Directorate in Kibuli, Kampala today.
When contacted yesterday, police spokesman Fred Enanga said he did not have information on the matter.
Efforts to get a comment from Ms Ssali were futile as she did not answer our calls.
Ms Ssali was severally mentioned in the report by the parliamentary Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry, which influenced the irregular compensation of the claimants of Bwavumpoloma Growers Cooperative.
The government gave Shs2.7b to Bwavumpoloma Growers Cooperative in November 2021.
While meeting the parliamentary committee, Ms Ssali insisted that the payments were made before she became the Trade ministry accounting officer.
The Members of Parliament recommended that Ms Ssali and other public servants be interdicted to pave the way for investigations.
The payment of the war debt claimants started as far back as the Eighth Parliament in the mid-2000s. The payments were originally managed by the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs before it was transferred to the Trade ministry.
It isn’t clear whether the detectives will investigate all the teams that processed the Shs164b compensation of the cooperatives from as far back as 2006. Many public officers have since retired, some passed on while others have moved to other ministries.
Detectives yesterday interrogated to Kachumbala MP Patrick Isiagi Opolot, the chairman of the Budget Committee, and several Parliament clerks.
Mr Isiagi and the clerks allegedly took detectives through the parliamentary procedures to pay claimants or handle business in Parliament.
He and the clerks were allowed to leave after recording statements.
Since the police started the investigations, they have so far produced three members of Parliament in court including Michael Mawanda (Igara West), Ignatius Wamakuyu Mudimi (Elgon), and Paul Akamba (Busiki). The trio and a lawyer, Julius Kirya appeared before the Anti-Corruption Court on June 21 and were remanded.
The investigations into the cooperatives’ compensation started on August 25, 2023, when Speaker Anita Among instructed the parliamentary Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry to conduct an inquiry into the funds paid to cooperatives between financial years 2011/2012 and 2022/2023.
The government was compensating cooperative societies that had lost funds and property in wars between 1979 and 2006 which led to the collapse of some.
The committee’s investigations found that there were several ghost claimants and double payments to the cooperatives.
