By Gerald Tenywa

The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has suspended three officials over fraud in permits for tracking gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

“It is true three people have been suspended,” said Dr. Andrew Seguya, the executive director of UWA, but hastened to add that the matter is still under investigation.

 “People are innocent until proven guilty but it is standard practice to ask people to step aside. We will take action when we have established all the facts against them.”

Sources within UWA told New Vision that the scandal came to light when several permits to track Mountain gorillas were being traced back to one receipt. This, according to sources, is an anomaly since one permit is issued for each receipt.

The suspended officials are from the accounts and reservations offices.

UWA could have lost money in billions. The fraudulent allocation of permits came to light when the whistle blower had been transferred to Mt. Elgon.

Sources say the transfer was going to disable his dealings with the trio and make it hard for him to benefit. He opted to resign and also spill the beans.

This prompted the auditors to swing into action leading to the discovery of the scandal, which sources suspect could have been going on for many years.

Mountain gorillas are estimated to be 800 in the world and categorised as endangered species meaning that if nothing is done to protect them and their habitat they will become extinct.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has more than half of the mountain gorillas and the rest are shared by Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda (Mgahinga). They are globally sought after by tourists who relish an experience to track and view them.

UWA charges $500 (about sh1.3m) per permit to track gorillas and only 80 permits are available for gorilla trackers per day.

Gorilla tracking in Bwindi and Mgahinga in south western Uganda started in the 1990s and is the biggest source of revenue for UWA.