KAMPALA, August 7, 2024 – The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has asked the Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala to issue a warrant of arrest against two lawyers who are accused of swindling billions of shillings meant to compensate Busoga Growers Cooperative Union for war losses suffered.
The Union is among several cooperatives that lost money to politicians, lawyers, and others as government agreed to compensate them for the losses incurred during the political instabilities in the 1970s and early 1980s.
John Matovu of Matovu & Matovu Advocates, and Fred Makada of Makada & Partners are accused alongside Jinja District Commercial Officer James Muganza and Charles Basoga, the Chairperson of Busoga Growers Cooperative Union who were earlier remanded to Luzira Prison by Acting Senior Principal Grade One Magistrate Abert Asiimwe.
The warrant for their arrest was sought by State Attorney Stanley Baine on grounds that although they had been summoned to appear before the court, the two lawyers have remained defiant. The suspects are accused of abusing over Shs 15 billion released to compensate Busoga Growers Cooperative Union.
According to the report of parliament’s Sectoral Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry, released in October 2023, a total of Shs 15,070,263,780 was paid to Matovu & Matovu and Makada & Partners for war loss compensation, with Matovu & Matovu taking beyond 40 percent of the proceeds it collected on behalf of the union. Shs 9. 050bln was unaccounted for as it did not reflect on the Union’s bank account.
According to Haranu Ntuyo, the Treasury of the cooperative who interacted with the MPs who investigated the matter, Matovu & Matovu retained the rest of the monies meant for the cooperative, and the agreement of 40 percent was not adhered to by the law firm as they would remit the money as and when they would wish. “It was also the submission of the Union Treasurer that the money so far remitted by the law firm to the Union’s bank accounts does not amount to 60 percent as expected,” the MPs said in their report, that was never debated on the floor of the House, but was directly sent to DPP.
The MPs in their report say the Union was paid in excess of Shs 4.548bln, and advised that Geraldine Ssali Busuulwa, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives [MTIC] who is in prison over the war loss compensation scandals, be held personally liable for causing financial loss.
Meanwhile, lawyers Matovu has petitioned the Anti-Corruption Court seeking to block the state from prosecuting him over the cooperative’s cash. He contends that the state is violating his right to practice his profession as an advocate in respect to compensation to Busoga Growers Cooperative Union.
He says the Union hired him to recover the money from MTIC which he did and passed it over to the Union, and that he only deducted agreed professional fees. He wants court to issue a permanent injunction restraining the state from criminalising him in respect of compensation to Busoga Growers Cooperative Union.
Some members of parliament and lawyers and lawyers are already in Luzira prison over the misappropriation of cooperatives’ money meant for war loss compensation.
https://thecooperator.news/hundreds-lose-jobs-as-mayuge-sugar-factory-is-closed/
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