Four charged with abuse of office

Nansana municipal council town clerk has been charged with abuse of office over irregularly approving sh15m.

  Jimmy Atwooko, together with principal assistant town clerk Hadijah Sengendo, senior accountant Agnes Nakabugo and senior account assistant Florence Nayiga were charged with abuse of office and remanded to prison.

They were charged at the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo, Kampala, before Magistrate Moses Nabende. They denied the charges.

Prosecution, led by James Khaukha, said in September 2019 in Nansana municipality, Wakiso district, Atwooko, while employed by Nansana municipal council as the accounting officer abused his office by irregularly approving sh15m for transport services.

Atwooko is alleged to have approved and validated the payment for transport services purportedly provided by Vince Tours Ltd without proper procedures and processes for such payments.

Sengendo is alleged to have irregularly recommended the payments without verifying and without following a proper procedure of such payment.

As a senior account assistant and head of finance, prosecution said Nakabugo irregularly authorised the payment of sh15m for transport services, claiming that Vince Tours Ltd had provided transport to Nansana municipal council.

Prosecution further alleged that Nayiga as a senior account assistant, in abuse of authority of her office, did an arbitrary act, prejudicial to the interest of her employer (Nansana municipal council) by initiating irregular payment of sh15m for transport services purporting that the transport services were provided by Vince Tours Ltd without following the proper procedures and process for such payments.

Under the Anti-Corruption Act, a person who is employed in a public body or a company in which the Government has shares, and does or directs to be done an arbitrary act prejudicial to the interests of his or her employer or of any other person, in abuse of the authority of his or her office, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment not exceeding seven years or a fine not exceeding one hundred and sixty-eight currency points (sh3.6m) or both.