Compensating coops for war losses:  Gov’t blamed for not involving district leaders

LIRA, September 11, 2023 – Leaders from Lango and Bunyoro sub-regions have said the money released to cooperatives by the government as compensation for war losses was abused because district local governments were not involved in the process.

The district leaders said last week that bypassing local authorities in the entire compensation process contributed to conflicts, corruption, and manipulation which resulted in cooperatives being cheated as some senior officials in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives [MTIC] connived with some of the leaders of cooperatives and lawyers.

“This is like a postmortem of money released by the government. It seems few people have benefited from money offered to Lango Cooperative Union [LCU] yet it could have changed many lives,” said Morris Okello, the speaker of Lira district council.

Okello made the remarks days ago as he interacted with parliament’s Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry in Lira district. The committee last week embarked on an inquiry into the war compensation money that government released to cooperatives across the country.

Okello said the district commercial office by its mandate could have prevented the alleged misuse of funds by the LCU and the eventual fights between members if the district leaders had been involved in the compensation process.

“Basing on what is on ground I pray that your recommendations empower local leaders. We have the district commercial officers, the mandate could also be given to the chief administrative officers and the district chairpersons to be supervising some of these activities,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Masindi, the district leaders were concerned with the way Bunyoro Cooperative Union was cheated by third parties who took more than half of their compensation money. They said this would not have happened if district officials were engaged in the process.

“The error that the union committed is negligence due to failure to consult, the district could have guided. Include district leaders in your recommendations to keep an eye on government funding to avoid similar occurrences in future,” commended Emmanuel Awio, deputy chief administrative officer, Masindi district.

During the inquiry, members of parliament said poor management of the received funds was a result of poor supervision cooperatives as some of them lacked critical staff such as accountants, while others were headed by semi-illiterate leaders.

In Masindi, the committee was perturbed by the fact that some of the leaders of Bunyoro Cooperative Union could not explain the basic operations of the union including how they used Shs 2.5 billion remitted to their bank account for compensation.

“Chairman and treasurer, we have asked you simple questions and you cannot answer. You could not tell us how much was remitted to your bank account, you cannot explain how the union reached at the lawyer’s fees, neither could you locate the memorandum of understanding signed with the lawyer,” said Sheema County South MP Elijah Mushemeza.

The chairperson of the committee, Mwine Mpaka Rwamirama warned that failure by the union leadership to file complaints against the lawyer, who is said to have taken more than the agreed 50 percent was criminal.

“The fact that you never took the lawyer to the police, you never made any official complaint means you facilitated the entire process and you are guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud,” he said.

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