It has emerged that government has lost billions of shillings to 4,000 ghost claimants under the Acholi War Debt Claimants Association.
This was revealed yesterday by Henry Oluka, the acting Commissioner in the Office of Attorney General who is charged with the compensation of the war claimants.
Oluka was addressing a meeting of Acholi political, traditional and religious leaders at the Comboni Animation Centre in Bardege Division in Gulu municipality.
The meeting which is still ongoing is aimed at resolving conflicts among leaders and reaching a common consensus on the critical issues affecting Acholi.
Between 2006 and 2013, government advanced about 7.1 billion shillings as compensation for animals lost during civil wars in Acholi. Oluka revealed that part of this money was used to compensate 4,000 individuals who shouldn’t have been compensated.
Oluka said no face could be put to some of the ghost recipients while others were underage.
The Acting Commissioner told the Acholi leaders that the anomaly was only discovered during the verification and revalidation exercise of the cattle claimants which began in January this year. The exercise is still ongoing and is aimed at cleaning up the list of claimants.
In one instance, according to Oluka, a ‘‘ghost’’ claimant received payment in four different installments amounting to 80 million shillings.
Each cattle claimant, Oluka revealed , should have received 600,000 shillings per cattle. But the cattle claimants were only paid between 100,000- 200,000 shillings by the Acholi War Claimants Association.
In November last year, government tasked the executive members of Acholi War Debt Claimants Association to account for Shs7.1 billion advanced to them.
The Aruu County MP Samuel Odonga-Otto blamed the mess in Acholi War Debt Claimants on politicians.
Odonga- Otto said that after they had agreed that money meant for compensation in Acholi should be disbursed after the 2016 general elections but that this was opposed by members of the ruling NRM party.
The legislator explained that the NRM party feared that if the payments were withheld, President Museveni would lose votes in Acholi.
His Kilak County counterpart Gilbert Olanya asked government to prosecute those who swindled the compensation money.
Olanya said there is no way those who abused the compensation can walk free when genuine beneficiaries, often old, poor and vulnerable people are suffering.
However, the executive chairman of the Acholi War Debt Claimants Association, Noah Opwonya, has in the past dismissed claims of abuse of funds.
Opwonya claims he submitted accountability of all the money received from government through the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
But Oluka said besides the accountability submitted, the office of the Attorney General wants to meet the real beneficiaries to ascertain whether what they got in compensation is same as what is in the accountability.
Copies of documents obtained indicate that the five executives of the Acholi War Debt Claimants Association awarded themselves 106, 000, 000 Uganda shillings in compensation for cattle and property lost.
Compensation to cattle claimants in Acholi has been suspended until after the verification process.
1 Comment
It is same old story; same old government of the Movement party which arbitrarily changed the constitution of Uganda to allow President Museveni and the ghastly National Resistance Movement to remain in power for life. It was the NRM which set the Presidential term limits, in the first place, when political rhetoric overcame logic, truth and justice. Today, theft and wealth, outside political power, should have satisfied them, but not so. They have decided to cling to power at all cost. It is often wrath and turmoil to send the Ugandan government and its agents to deal in anything involving money, wealth and power.
Corruption is a tool for the regime to support despotic rules and violence. There is the unstated protocol in the regime which says, steal when in charge and pay when the regime wants you out of the way. Steal when in charge, and get found out when the regime wants to punish you. The government and its instruments of power and control will turn a blind eye when they still like you, and you will steal and destroy the country as much as you like. They will keep a close record on you and use it to bring you down when you ‘misbehave’ to them.
Corruption has become a nasty and an effective tool of control and destructive rule by force and violence. It has kept the regime of Mr Museveni and the NRM, paying them countless fortunes from the tax payers’ purse. The regime is now so schooled in stealing and propagandising that even ordinary Ugandans are beginning to believe that the crime of corruption pays. Others even defend it and say Ugandans cannot survive without it. The dilemma for the many small people is that, the more you have the more you get; and the reverse is true: if you don’t have, even the little that you have is taken away and added to those who already have. This is the law of the jungle, which Uganda under the NRM has become.
Yet the regime has never ceased to make more promises; after close to thirty years of disastrous rule of anarchy and barbarity. That is the fallacy attending to the corrupt estate of the Museveni and the Movement recalcitrance. Once more, the maxim of ‘Robin Hood’ turned upside down is revisited and revealed: the regime stealing from the have not and giving to those closest to it. These are the ones who already have so much and still ask for more. The result is the incessant condition where greed and thirsts for more continuously drive their lusts and debaucheries.
Yet it is said: ‘easy come easy go’. The money is running out, and it is time up for the corrupt regime. Clearly, so much damage has already been done and Ugandans still remain the unsuspecting victim. It is also said poverty and hardships never kill; even so, it still hurts and frustrates, knowing more and better things would have been achieved had the regime of Mr Museveni and the NRM never imposed itself on the country and its people by force of arms under what was a violent and bloody military coup. That said, and the truth being, their grip on power still continues without the consent of the people of Uganda.
Over the years of uncouth and backward rule under the NRM, the people of Uganda have struggled and worked their hands to the bones. They continue to toil knowing one day, their hard labours and sacrifices will pay. They also know every dog has his day. The bad ones from the Bad Lands will soon perish and give way to truth, justice, reconciliation and honest rule, in a renewed and prosperous Uganda.
There is power invested in the people. Whoever ignores this people’s power does so at their peril. The people of Uganda should keep their focus, doing good and working as hard as ever. Clearly, pain may endure for a while, but joy and hope come in the morning. The people, past and present, who have worked so hard and done so much good, enduring hardships for so long for their country, will soon gain their true freedoms, justice, democracy, the rule of law and peace.
David Okun