Parliament detains Nakaseke CAO over sh800m fraud

MPs on the Local Governments Accounts committee (LGAC) chaired by Reagan Okumu on Thursday handed over Nakaseke Chief Administrative officer Edith Mutabazi  to Parliament Criminal Investigations Department(CID) for reportedly tabling before the committee, suspected forged vouchers and receipts as accountability for sh800m.

The district senior accountant Theodrous Kinene and district engineer Arnold Mugwanya were also detained for reportedly telling lies to the committee.

The Auditor General in the report of 2014/2015 queried the manner in which the district officials paid money to different companies to purportedly carry out road maintenance, supply of stationery, servicing vehicle and the district offices generators, but lacked accountability vouchers, contrary to accounting principles. 

The committee invited the team to appear and produce accountability, but when the MPs scrutinized the vouchers, they reportedly found out that they lacked authentic dates, not written on headed papers,  and were written and signed by the same handwriting, which prompted the committee to  call for CID investigations.

The MPs took a sample of the vouchers totaling to over sh50m. They discovered the district had paid over sh50m to a local company RAP Motors engineer for different services.

The Katikamu South MP Edward Ssembatya suspected fraud when he singled out two accounting vouchers having similar serial numbers. "This is fraud" he said

The three were later released after recording statements.