The Ministry of Education and Sports officials have been charged over corruption related cases in regard to the award of construction contract for a government facility.
The four officials serving in different capacities were arraigned before the Anti-corruption Court in Kampala on charges of corruption, abuse of office and conspiracy to defraud after soliciting for a 10 percent bribe of the total contract price.
The suspects working with the Ministry of Education are Edward Frederick Lubinga an Architectural Assistant, Doreen Matovu Lwanga (Civil Engineer and Acting Head of Construction Management Unit), Hajji Abdul Nsubuga (Project Management Professional) and Solomon Kaigia a Quantity Surveyor who has also been working as the project coordinator.
They appeared before the Magistrate Grade One Moses Nabende who granted them cash bail upon paying cash bail of UGX4m, UGX2m and UGX1.5m for the last two suspects.
The magistrate also extended the matter to August 4 this year for mention of the case after state submission that investigations into the case were still ongoing.
The suspects were arrested on Tuesday by detectives attached to the State House Anti-corruption Unit and the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) of the Police, following a tip off that they had got Shs120 million and that they were pressuring the contractor to pay the balance.
Prosecution case
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It is alleged that Lubinga received UGX25m as an inducement from Nsimbe, to conduct a due diligence for his company and that in abuse of the authority of his office, he demanded UGX50m for himself from Nsimbe as an inducement.
The State alleges that between August 2019 and March 2020, Doreen Lwanga Matovu appointed the contracts manager of the Uganda Skills Development project for Bushenyi Cluster irregularly issued variant contract terms and specifications to the contractor without following the PPDA laws and contract agreement, thereby frustrating and stalling construction work at Nyamitanga Technical Institute.
Prosecution states that Matovu corruptly neglected her duty as a contracts manager to inspect and approve the construction materials at the Construction sites before commencement of work, thereby compromising the quality of the construction.
It is alleged that the Ministry of Education and Sports officials; Lubinga, Matovu, Hajji Nsubuga and Kaigia conspired to defraud Nsimbe of UGX228m which was 10 percent of the contract sum for construction of a facility at Nyamitanga Vocational Technical Institute.
