By Gerald Tenywa

THE head of the Uganda Wild¬life Authority, Moses Mapesa, and another boss are forced on leave over corruption. Two other bosses resigned.Joseph Tibeijuka, the director for finance, is now the acting executive director.

The board chairman, Dr. Boysier Oumar Muballe, said the suspension would help the authority investigate the matter without interference.

He cited the award of conces¬sions and the creation of illegal departments for the action.

“The board has taken a deci¬sion to send Moses Mapesa on forced leave with effect from to¬day (August 9),” said Muballe. “We have instituted an audit over a number of suspicions.”

Muballe added: “This is a criminal investigation in which concessions have been offered. The President said he would deploy cadres to fight impunity and corruption. There was no ambiguity in this statement.”

Mapesa is a long-serving wildlife manager, who belongs to many continental and global conservation bodies.

Mapesa headed the authority for the last five years, but has 22 years in wildlife service.

The authority was formed in 1996 following a merger of the Uganda National Parks and the Game Department.

Muballe’s board, which started two months ago, also suspended Sam Mwandha, the director of conservation, last week over the same matter.

James Omoding, a conserva¬tion coordinator, and Apophia Natukunda, the head of cor¬porate services, resigned last month, citing personal reasons. However, Muballe said the duo left after the board intervened.

Asked whether Mapesa was given an opportunity to defend himself, Muballe said: “These people have perfected the art of giving explanations, but now the audit will help us to put ev¬erything together. We will take more steps after the audit re¬port is out.”

Muballe cited a case in which an official was offered a bribe to influence the contracts com¬mittee to give hunting conces¬sions to a foreign investor.
“This was a case of fraud, which should be have been punished with outright dis¬missal. But Mapesa just cau¬tioned the officer,” he said.

“It is difficult to imagine the impunity of this official be¬cause he was soliciting for bribes from sport hunters us¬ing UWA’s e-mail address.”

Muballe did not specify how long Mapesa and Mwandha would be on leave. “Mapesa and Mwandha should keep away from office during the fo¬rensic audit,” he stressed.

In a separate interview, Lil¬lian Nsubuga, the spokesper¬son, said: “We are working normally, decisions are being made. There is no problem.”

The authority, which was set up by the Wildlife Act of 1996, manages 10 national parks, 12 wildlife reserves and 14 sanc¬tuaries sitting on land covering 10% of Uganda. It was hit with cases of corruption and inter¬mittent sackings of executive directors in its infancy.

Until now, the agency had been largely stable this de¬cade. Uganda’s wildlife population was decimated in the 1970s and 1980s during the years of political instability and civil unrest.