Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court has acquitted Robert Kakiiza, the former Principal Civil Engineer in the Ministry of Works and Transport. He was facing charges of abuse of office and criminal negligence.
The charges stemmed from his failure to perform his duties when a bogus company; Ammam Industrial Tools and Equipment Limited (AITEL) was contracted to purchase 70, 000 bicycles from India. The bicycles were meant to be used by LC1 and parish chairpersons for government activities ahead of the 2011 general elections.
It later emerged that the company, which was also endorsed by the Ministry of works Evaluation committee, was a sham having been formed within five days of putting up an advert seeking bidders to supply bicycles. As a result, the government lost over USD 1.7 million (6.3 billion Shillings) to the government in a raw deal that saw no single bicycle delivered into the country.
But during the trial, Kakiiza through his lawyers led by Evans Ochieng said that any losses incurred were caused by other players in the procurement process when they altered the terms of the contract to pay money before delivery of goods. Court records indicate that the contract payment was that the said amounts of money be paid in a lump sum upon delivery. But the Contracts Committee later changed the terms of payment and deposited 40 per cent of the said money before delivery.
Kakiiza said that the acts of altering the terms of the contract were beyond his scope of the mandate and that fraud lay elsewhere. He also explained that he did not attend the Evaluation Committee Meeting because he had joined a team of officials from the Office of the Prime Minister who were constructing teachers houses under the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan in Northern Uganda.
Presiding Judge Lawrence Gidudu set Kakiiza free on grounds that issues of the contract and performance were beyond his knowledge and scope of duties and that he should have been preferred charges of conspiracy to defraud but the same was never brought against him. He said that the failure by an official to attend a single committee meeting was not enough to impose criminal negligence charge against him, especially since he was a civil and not a mechanical engineer.
He added that given his expertise, where he was sourced to provide technical aspects of bicycles such as quantity, steel, size and their capacity to handle the road, the Prosecution would have faulted him if the defective bicycles had been supplied.
The Judge has also noted that whoever changed the term of the contract payment from the full amount of payment upon delivery to paying 40 per cent upfront was not part of this case and there was no proof that the decision was made by Kakiiza.
He also reasoned that the Investigating Officer and Prosecution Witness Umar Mutuya said that there were no minutes of the Evaluation Committee. Besides this, the court heard that from the beginning, Kakiiza was never treated as an accused person. This is because Mutuya said that he lied to the court when he testified that Kakiiza skipped bond when actually he has never been given any police bond.
Lawyer Evans Ochieng welcomed the decision.
About seven years ago, four people formerly employed in the Ministry of Local Government were sentenced to serve a punishment ranging from one to 13-years in jail for their various roles in this bicycle scandal. The sentences were earlier given by the then Anti-Corruption Court Judge Catherine Bamugemereire were later upheld by the Court of Appeal while others quashed.
They include Sam Emorut Erongot, the former Commissioner in charge of Policy and Planning, John Muhanguzi Kashaka, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Henry Bamutura, the former Principal Accountant and Adam Aluma. The other accused person Robert Mwebaze died during the course of the trial and Timothy Musherure the Consultant also passed on moments after he had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
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