Members of Parliament on Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) have learnt that prime land belonging to Uganda Land Commission, which housed a Kampala Capital City Authority dispensary, was fraudulently appropriated to M/s Securex Amenities Limited.
The committee learnt that the land located at Plot 71 Nkrumah Road was leased to Ms Securex Amenities Limited on condition that two floors will be condominium property of KCCA, but the developer never fulfilled the condition and has now converted the leasehold into freehold under controversial circumstances.
In correspondences shared with MPs, former Kampala Mayor Nasser Ntege Ssebaggala asked then Town Clerk, Ruth Kijjambu to clear the acquisition by Ms Securex.
In response, however, Kijjambu asked the then Mayor to discuss the matter in the Executive Committee, which purportedly approved the said acquisition.
Appearing before the committee on Thursday, 09 March 2023, Kijjambu disowned the correspondences purporting to bear her signature, terming them a forgery.
“They wrote a letter to the then Mayor, who asked me to consider the issue and whether I have any comments; the Executive Committee discussed the issue [and] one or two floors was to be maintained as a hospital or clinic for KCCA,” she said.
Kijjambu denied having authored subsequent documents omitting the issue of two building floors being given to KCCA.
“The signature seems to be similar to mine but I’m not sure whether this is my signature; it looks like someone scanned my signature and placed it in this document,” she said.
MPs also learnt from the Auditor General that by the time Ms Securex was allocated the lease, it wasn’t incorporated as a company, and that the file containing all correspondences incidental to the impugned transaction has since been confirmed missing by officials from the Uganda Land Commission (ULC).
Hon. Bumaali Mpindi (NRM, PWD Central) said there is a web of corrupt officials who are complicit in such dubious transactions.
“It seems to be a cartel of public servants doing these kind of things; this problem lies in the hands of Uganda Land Commission, it started from there,” he said.
The Director Legal Affairs in KCCA, Caleb Mugisha, however, denied any wrongdoing instead saying the office of the Executive Director never shared with him the findings of the Auditor General on possible fraud in the transaction for his opinion.
KCCA Executive Director, Dorothy Kisaka blamed her failure to share details of the audit with Mugisha on the Covid-19 lockdown, at which point she said the authority was working at the rate of 20 per cent staff presence.
Committee Chairperson, Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi said after two more meetings with the entity, they will retreat to write their report and make appropriate recommendations.
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