Uganda: Kazinda Holds PAC Report On OPM Scam

After interviewing over 100 witnesses including the Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and First Lady Janet Museveni over the financial impropriety in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), the Public Accounts Committee is uncertain on how to proceed without the testimony of the principal witness Geoffrey Kazinda.

According to the committee chairman Kassiano Wadri, the committee is still waiting for the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga's advice on how to proceed with the report.

In a letter to the Speaker, Kassiano complained that the committee's report to parliament will be incomplete if Kazinda does not testify and give his side of the story.

"The course of interface with the witnesses, many pointed accusing fingers at the embattled principal accountant (Kazinda) now being prosecuted before court. Madam Speaker, it will be unfair for the committee to submit its report to parliament without giving him an opportunity to hear his side of the story as the last witness," Kassiano said.

"This is therefore to seek your guidance on how the committee can access Mr. Kazinda and also seek your guidance on how to proceed without hearing from Kazinda," Kassiano added.

Several witnesses who have appeared before the committee claimed that Kazinda masterminded the scam in which up to sh50b was mismanaged.

Kazinda, now facing fraud and embezzlement charges at the Anti- Corruption Court, has on several occasions been blocked from appearing before PAC following a request by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The DPP Richard Buteera asked the Speaker to stop Kazinda's appearance or that of witnesses lined to testify in court. He said their appearance would be prejudicial to ongoing criminal cases.

In December, when the Committee wrote to the Commissioner General of Prisons Johnson Byabashaija to bring Kazinda, OPM permanent secretary Pius Bigirimana also wrote to the Attorney General seeking his advice on the matter.

The Attorney General then wrote to Parliament and Prisons service objecting the proposal to produce Kazinda before the probe saying the matter was already in Court.

It has since become a battle between parliament and Government to have Kazinda produced before the committee. Kadaga, at one time stopped the probe following the DPP's request, but later gave them a go ahead. By yesterday, she had not responded as she was reportedly out of the country.