CID Questions Coop Boss Ivan Asiimwe, Two Others over Forgery, Fraud

Kampala, Uganda:  Following the interrogation of Uganda Cooperative Alliance General Secretary, Ivan Asiimwe, last Friday on suspicion of forgery, police yesterday questioned two more senior officials of the Alliance on the same matter.

The officers are Rosanne Muhumuza, the human resource manager and Sam Odeke, the finance manager.

The two were interrogated by police detectives based at the Uganda National Roads Authority’s Investigations and Compliance Department over allegations of forgery, abuse of office, and causing financial loss at the cooperatives umbrella body.

First to be interrogated was the Human Resource Manager, Rosanne Muhumuza, who arrived at UNRA’s head office in Nakawa at 10.26am. The interrogation lasted three and half hours. Finance Manager, Sam Odeke arrived for questioning at 2pm, and was questioned for three hours.

Last week, police interrogated Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA) General Secretary Ivan Asiimwe, over suspected use of forged board minutes to access UCA’s residual land tittles previously held by Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA).

No charges have been preferred against the officials.

Chelimo Beata, CID head of Compliance and Investigations department at UNRA told theCooperator that investigations were progressing on schedule: “We are yet to get to the bottom of the matter, but so far all those summoned have appeared and my team is handling the interrogation,” said Chelimo at her office in Nakawa.

When asked about the investigation’s findings so far, she was reluctant to reveal details, but said concrete findings would be ready by Tuesday next week.

The investigations follow a number of complaints by UCA senior management staff to the union’s board and the Ministry of Cooperatives.

In a 16-page petition to the UCA board, the staff accuse UCA’s leadership and Ivan Asiimwe in particular of abuse of office, financial mismanagement and disrespecting and maltreatment of staff members.

“We would like the board to interest itself in how project funds are utilized in UCA because on several occasions, partners have expressed dissatisfaction over the utilization of funds in the organization,” the petition reads.

The staff want Asiimwe to step aside as investigations continue.

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