Yasiin Mugerwa
5 November 2008
The Chogm accountability ghost yesterday returned to haunt the foreign affairs ministry, with Minister Sam Kutesa being named in the alleged abuse of public funds amounting to over Shs1.3 billion.
Mr Julius Onen, the then permanent secretary in the ministry, succumbed to the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) pressure and named Mr Kutesa in a financial scam involving irregular payment of taxpayers' money to a London law firm, Hunton & Williams.
"We were all involved in this deal, Minister Kutesa, PS and the directors in the ministry," Mr Onen said. "Mr chairman, there is nothing to hide and I don't have any problem if you call the Minister to explain his side, but the entire top management was involved."
The former PS' testimony dispels Mr Kutesa's defence in which he challenged the Pac chairperson, Mr Nandala Mafabi (FDC, Budadiri West), to produce evidence that he benefited from the $750,000 (about Shs1.35b) deal. Mr Kutesa had then said the public relations deal was a "clean" one.
"Everything was open. I never stole any money. I would like to demand strict proof from Mr Mafabi," Mr Kutesa had said earlier.
The Pac had accused Mr Kutesa of using his private law firm to negotiate payment of the specified cash to the London law firm in disregard of procurement laws.
Pac picked the issue from the latest AG's report for the year ended June 2006, which said Hunton & Williams was paid in respect of "consultancy services in connection with Uganda's bid to host the Chogm summit 2007."
Mr Onen survived arrest after he attempted to cover up Mr Kutesa's involvement in the deal, where the Minister took personal charge of the project in which the law firm was contracted to advise the government on foreign public relations.
Mr Mafabi said, "There was no need to contract this PR firm when we have foreign missions. Whether Mr Kutesa or yourself (Mr Onen), you're going to pay this money." Kawempe South MP Ssebuliba Mutumba told reporters that, "Now that the PS has named him (Mr Kutesa), we are going to summon him because this is a serious case. It was wrong for Mr Kutesa to use Chogm as a cover to abuse public funds."
Documents availed to the committee pin Mr Kutesa for putting his signature on a contract between the firm and the Ministry contrary to the standing orders in which the PS would be the one to sign the contract.
The committee gave Mr Onen seven days within which to provide accountability or risk being arrested. Daily Monitor exclusively reported about Mr Kutesa's connection to Hunton & Williams on May 26, 2005 - exposing the fact that the Foreign Minister's daughter - Elizabeth Kutesa had worked for the London law firm. Mr Kutesa then confirmed that his daughter had worked for Hunton & Williams through senior partner John Miles.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
