IGG investigates SWIPCO’s $20m payment

Feb 23, 2004

THE Inspector General of Government (IGG) is investigating reports that the Government overpaid the Swiss Procurement Company (SWIPCO) by $20m.<br>The queries were raised by the the Internal Security Organisation (ISO).

THE Inspector General of Government (IGG) is investigating reports that the Government overpaid the Swiss Procurement Company (SWIPCO) by $20m, reports Alfred Wasike.

The queries were raised by the the Internal Security Organisation (ISO).

Uganda contracted SWIPCO between September 1996 and September 2003 to provide procurement audit services.

ISO’s economic affairs and monitoring director Teddy Sseezi Cheeye has written to finance minister Gerald Ssendawula, accusing corrupt officials in his ministry of overpaying SWIPCO and of ignoring advice from the IGG, the Attorney General, the Auditor General and the State House.

IGG Jotham Tumwesigye said yesterday, “We have to look at this problem again. We investigated the way SWIPCO came to Uganda in 1998. We found that it was not done in a regular way. We found out that the manner in which the contract was obtained was not proper.”

“Later the contract was renegotiated but our concerns were not fully addressed. The flaws that we detected could have led to the loss. But we are going to find out the truth,” Tumwesigye said.

Cheeye said, “Economic intelligence will be taken seriously by relevant government institutions if we are to achieve quality and maximum utilisation of public funds, and avoid economic distortions like the SWIPCO scandal, or the Westmont saga.

“The days when SWIPCO used to ride on the back of the law, have come to an end. In January 2004, Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority disqualified AMPROC (American Procurement Company), SWIPCO’s successor, from doing government procurement audit services,” he said.

AMPROC managing director Robert Mwesigwa who was the SWIPO chief, dismissed Cheeye’s claims. “For his information, the Government actually owes SWIPCO more than $4m. How can the Government overpay by that amount he claims when the whole contract sum did not exceed $15m? It is a sham. AMPROC was pre-qualified.”

The East African reported that Cheeye recommends that Museveni instructs Ssendawula to establish a commission of inquiry into the payments. Both the Attorney General Francis Ayume and Ssendawula said they had received the ISO report.

Cheeye’s report says, for instance, that in February 2003, the finance ministry gave SWIPCO $1,243,540 as consultancy fees for the industrial park at Namanve on Kampala-Jinja highway. He said SWIPCO payments were based on gross calculations rather than actual work done and that its contract was offered irregularly.

The East African quoted former Auditor General James Kahoza.
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