Red flag raised over promotion of corruption convicts 

A non-governmental organisation (NGO) has raised the red flag over the alleged promotion of three senior officials in Jinja City who were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the government of Shs120m.

A May 30 petition filed by Isabirye & Co. Advocates on behalf of Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, an NGO engaged in fighting graft in the country, stated that on May 2 last year, the three officials; Samuel Maali, Ronald Kafifi Elijah and Jemima Mirembe, voluntarily pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the government of Shs120m under the plea bargaining programme.

The Anti-Corruption Court, where they appeared, sentenced them to a fine of Shs2m each or in default, serve a one-year’s jail term.
The trio paid the fine and were allegedly promoted on job.

“Whereas the [three] were convicted in respect to the charges involving moral turpitude and or dishonesty, they have gone to apply for and have been appointed on promotion in various positions in Jinja City,” the petition read in part.

The petition further states that under the Public Service Standing Orders 2021, there are disciplinary sanctions against public officers for either misconduct or gross misconduct, which the city clerk did not apply to the officials.

“Note that going by severity of the offence (conspiracy to defraud public resources amounting to Shs120m), at the workplace, the appropriate action to be made by the city clerk in such a case of gross misconduct was limited to recommending retirement in public interest or dismissal from service,” the petition states.

It added: “To the contrary, what the responsible officer has done is to recommend the convicts for appointments on promotion and deploying them. One of the convicts, Mr Maali Samuel has continued to be secretary of the city service commission, the very commission which in the ordinary course of events is required to conduct the disciplinary proceedings which in our client’s view is conflict of interest.”

When contacted, Mr Edward Lwanga, the Jinja City Clerk, said he has been in office for only three months and had found the process of promoting the officers already ongoing.

He, however, said the process has not been completed and that if the Rewards and Sanctions Committee is satisfied with the final outcome of the Solicitor General and recommends the dismissal of the officials, they will do so.

“I found when they had already been validated by the district service commission. When they were validating them, my predecessor wrote to the public service that wrote back saying as long as they were fined by court, they can still be validated and that is what happened,” Mr Lwanga said in a telephone interview last evening. 

He added that the Solicitor General is awaiting the certified copies of the court ruling before he comes up with his legal opinion on their alleged promotion.
When contacted last evening, Mr Maali denied being promoted but said he was reinstated to his job of principal human resource officer.

“So there were no promotions as claimed and the reinstatement was within the law. None of us who were accused were promoted as claimed. People choose the other side of the law. We were charged under the Penal Code Act and not Anti-Corruption Act that bars a convicted civil servant from working for 10 years,” Mr Maali explained.