Dr Edward Ddumba, the executive director at Mulago and the hospital’s Principal Accountant, Mr Elias Asiku, told MPs that crooked officials at Bank of Uganda forged their signatures and diverted the money.

Mr Juma Walusimbi, the Bank of Uganda’s spokesperson, confirmed the fraud yesterday but upheld the conduct of the Central Bank in the matter. “It cannot be true that BoU connived to steal this money. The bank made all efforts to stop this fraud by notifying the banks where these transactions had been carried out.”

As a result of the fraud, critical repairs at Mulago Hospital were left undone, MPs heard yesterday. The MPs also heard that due to insufficient funds to make the hospital ready for Chogm, administrators at Mulago diverted about Shs500 million from the institution’s development budget, a decision the managers described as a “necessary evil”.
MP Nandala Mafabi, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, called for a criminal investigation into the money that went missing at the Central Bank.

MPs heard that the contract, which was won by Rhino Investments, was signed before the evaluation of bids while the bidding firms, who also included Dott Services and Mpanga Engineering, were evaluated before their bids were opened.

The Daily Monitor: Tuesday,  2 February 2010

Legislators to block oil deals

A group of opposition lawmakers were on Monday plotting to table a motion, seeking to stop what they described as ‘scrambling for Uganda’s oil wells’ as Parliament reconvenes from a month-long break today.

The MPs led by Shadow Finance Minister Oduman Okello plan to ask Parliament to compel Energy Minister, Hillary Onek to bring a statement on all the ‘secretive’ oil deals the government signed with various international companies.

The debate in Parliament comes high on the heels of a simmering controversy involving a UK-based firm; Tullow Oil plotting to fork out $1.35 billion in investment to takeover Heritage oil’s assets in the country.

While the Energy Minister, Mr Onek, has reportedly criticised the deal in an apparent attempt to break monopoly, there are reports that President Museveni has offered Tullow a green light on the deal, pending Cabinet decision expected this week.

Ms Winnie Masiko (Rukungiri Woman), who chairs the Natural Resources Committee ,yesterday confirmed receipt of the deals.

The Daily Monitor: Tuesday,  2^nd February 2010