The State House Anti-Corruption Unit in liason with Uganda Police have arrested the Executive Secretary of the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board (DAPCB), George William Bizibu and the board Accountant over fraud.
According to Anti-Corruption Unit, Bizibu together with the board Accountant falsely obtained money from various persons while purporting to allocate them properties.
“It is alleged that the duo are fond of defrauding people by issuing false allocation letters & receipts after extorting huge sums of money,” the Anti-Corruption Unit said through their official Twitter handle.
They suspects were arrested on Wednesday.
This is not the first time Mr Bizibu is falling on the wrong side of the law.
In April last year, Uganda Police’s Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) confirmed that they were investigating him over Shs1.6 billion fraudulent deal.
It was alleged that Mr Bizibu took the money from Margaret Ssekidde, the proprietor of Seroma Ltd and failed to deliver the property to the businesswoman.
Ms Ssekidde reported the matter to President Yoweri Museveni who in turn asked for an investigation into the affairs of DAPCB.
CID Spokesperson Charles Twine said top Custodian Board bosses including executive secretary Mr Bizibu were being investigated on orders of President Museveni.
In 2019, the Auditor General unearthed rot in the DAPCB.
In his special report to Parliament, AG John Muwanga revealed that the board misused public funds through fictitious compensations of up to Shs1.7 billion, double allocation of properties, forged land titles, sale of assets without proper valuation and missing documents, among other illegalities.
These irregularities were blamed on ‘a busy board’ [that includes government officials such as ministers], which failed to monitor the property transactions.
Muwanga said that the Board chaired by Finance minister Matia Kasaija failed to maintain proper books of accounts and annual financial statements were not prepared. As a result, it took his office over 15 years to audit the Board activities.
According to Daily Monitor, Kasaija claimed that unspecified amount of money was paid to undisclosed claimants for properties, which were sold by the Custodian Board prior to receiving repossession claims by original owners.
However, without the schedule and respective claim files supporting the compensation amounts in question, the Auditor General said: “I was therefore unable to confirm the authenticity of these claims.”
The AG also inspected 139 properties in Jinja Municipality and found that the Board did appoint qualified professionals to value the properties. There was also no complete list of tenants and properties. The AG further discovered cases of duplicated allocation of properties, abandoned properties, irregular disposal of properties, arrears of ground rent and unscrupulous property managers. He said these irregularities resulted in loss of government properties.
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