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Kadaga stops probe into OPM cash scam
By YASIIN MUGERWA
Posted Wednesday, February 13 2013 at 02:00
Posted Wednesday, February 13 2013 at 02:00
In Summary
A watchdog committee of Parliament was stunned yesterday, after it emerged that Speaker Rebecca Kadaga had stopped its inquiry into the theft of Sh50 billion in foreign aid channelled through the Office of the Prime Minister.
After spending more than three months on the investigation, Ms Kadaga, on February 8, wrote to the Public Accounts Committee chairman, Mr Kassiano Wadri, explaining that that the Rules of Procedure do not permit Parliament to handle issues, if proceedings have begun in courts of law. “I am, therefore, of the opinion that the continuation of the investigations will prejudice the fair determination of the cases before court,” she said. “I, therefore, direct that you stop the investigations until such a time when the cases have been concluded or as otherwise further directed.”
Ms Kadaga said she had received a complaint from the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Richard Butera, who stated that the PAC investigations into the OPM scam were “highly prejudicial” to the court process. The Daily Monitor has seen a copy of the letter from Mr Butera, dated February 6.
Contradiction
However, Ms Kadaga’s ruling contradicts another on a similar matter made by Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah last year. When Mr Kassiano brought the matter to the floor of Parliament, Mr Oulanyah ruled that the sub-judice rule only applies to the proceedings in the chamber and not the committee business.
While Ms Kadaga cited Rule 64 (2), (3) and (5), which bars members from discussing matters before courts of law, the Shadow Attorney General, Mr Abdu Katuntu, told Parliament yesterday that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and any law that is inconsistent with its provisions is of no force or effect.
Mr Katuntu cited Article 164 of the Constitution, which says all accounting officers are accountable to Parliament. “Rules of Procedure cannot limit the constitutional mandate of Parliament,” Mr Katuntu said. “The Speaker should use her discretion powers, but the sub-judice rule is not cast in stone. It’s wrong to stop the inquiry into the abuse of funds in the OPM; we are not subordinate to the DPP.”
The investigation headed by Terego MP Kassiano Wadri, ended yesterday amid the undertones of what infuriated PAC members called “mafia” politics. Mr Wadri, who expressed dissatisfaction with the Speaker’s directive, met the PAC to inform members of the developments. “The whole action is a betrayal. We have spent more than three moths reading documents, and preparing to ask the right questions, only to be told that the inquiry has been stopped,” Mr Wadri said. Addressing journalists on what he called “shocking news”, Mr Wadri added: “I can’t rule out undue interference.
In November last year, we were confronted by the sub-judice rule and when we contacted the Speaker, we were allowed to proceed.” According to Mr Wadri, the PAC investigation started after the suspended Principal Accountant, Mr Geoffrey Kazinda, had already appeared in court. He said the committee had more or less completed the investigations into the loss of more than Shs50b meant for post- war recovery efforts in northern Uganda and Karamoja sub-region.
“I am informed by Prison authorities that the same committee has summoned accused No. 1 in the same case, Kazinda, to also appear before the committee. I write to request you, Right Hon. Speaker, to guide the committee not to continue proceedings that are clearly prejudicial to our ongoing court criminal proceedings. It should be left to the courts to determine instead of having parallel hearings,” Mr Butera said, adding that the fight against corruption would only succeed if the various arms of government coordinate their operations.
Kadaga blocks MPs’ Kazinda probe
Tuesday, 12 February 2013 23:39
The three-month parliamentary investigation into
the swindle of Shs 50bn from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has been
stopped abruptly by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.
Kadaga ordered the Public Accounts committee to
stop the investigations until the parallel court cases have been disposed of.
Last year, PAC was called into action after a report by the Auditor General
found that billions of donor funds meant for the Peace, Recovery and
Development Programme (PRDP) in northern Uganda had been mismanaged by
officials in the OPM.
The committee last week sought to meet the Prime
Minister, Amama Mbabazi, and the Minister of Karamoja Affairs, Janet Museveni,
whose names were cited in the Auditor General’s report. However, both officials
separately informed PAC that they would not be available until later.
It is not clear whether the halting of the
proceedings has anything to do with the summoning of Mbabazi and the First
Lady, but the timing will inevitably fan speculation in that direction.
According to the PAC chairperson and Terego MP,
Kasiano Wadri (FDC), the speaker wrote to him urging his committee to stop the
probe.
“I got a surprise yesterday when I came to
Parliament. I received a letter from the office of the speaker addressed to me
as the chairman of PAC, to my vice and the deputy speaker to the effect that we
should halt our probe into the issues of financial impropriety in the Office of
the Prime Minister,” Wadri said.
“Her decision was premised on a letter she
received from the DPP to the effect that the witnesses who are appearing before
us are either state witnesses in courts of law or accused persons and further
revelations to our committee may jeopardize the ongoing cases in court,” he
said, adding that the DPP asked the speaker to halt the committee proceedings.
“The Right Hon speaker has advised that further
witnesses before us will be prejudicial to the cases going on in court and we
have been advised to refer to rule 64 of our Rules of Procedure,” Wadri said.
Rule 64 states that any matter which is before
any competent courts of law should not be discussed by Parliament or committees
of Parliament.
“It is on that basis that we have decided to
listen to the legal counsel given to us by the speaker…because we listen and
abide by her rulings,” Wadri said.
On February 7, the Director of Public
Prosecutions Richard Butera asked Kadaga to step in.
“I write to request you, Right Hon speaker, to
guide the committee not to continue proceedings that are clearly prejudicial to
our ongoing court criminal proceedings,” he wrote. “It should be left to court
to determine the cases instead of having parallel hearings.”
Not over yet
Wadri says, however, that it’s not over yet.
“The proceedings of PAC over this issue will
continue and we shall start from where we stopped. Those we have not touched,
we shall come to them because we can’t just waste taxpayers’ money for three
months and stop at that, we must bring it to the logical conclusion,” he said.
Wadri added he was not really surprised by the
development but wondered, however, why the state had chosen to stop them now.
“We have spent a longer time on this but the
state chose to come and stop us. Is it because certain personalities should
have appeared before us last week that the state goes to consult? Those are
questions which everybody should ask and be able to answer…,” Wadri told The
Observer in an interview.
PAC was supposed to interface with Mbabazi and
Mrs Museveni to enrich the investigation. However, a group of MPs protested the
move to summon the two officials, saying they had nothing to do with the
investigation.
The committee had also written to the Prisons
authorities summoning Geoffrey Kazinda, the interdicted OPM principal
accountant, seen as the principal suspect in the fraud.
