By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
The Public Accounts Committee on Local Government has confirmed that the person who was called live on broadcast TV and Radio by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja as the first recipient of the COVID-19 relief fund is not what he claimed to be.
Geoffrey Oloya, made headlines as the first beneficiary of the COVID-19 relief fund meant for vulnerable people.
On July 9, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja launched the disbursement of COVID-19 relief cash,commonly referred to as “Ssente ya Nabbanja / Nabbanja Money” at the office of the prime minister in Kampala. For purposes of transparency and accountability, the Prime minister picked a phone and telephoned Oloya to confirm if he had received the money and indeed, he confirmed having received the money.
Nabbanja further interrogated Olaya about his occupation and he imptsonated as being a ‘Boda Boda’ man cyclist in Gulu town who had temporarily dropped the Boda Boda job to farming in his rural area.
Inquiditive to know who the beneficiary was, the public started questioning yhe whereabouts of Olaya and it was in a blink that the Boda Boda Association of Gulu City distanced itself from such person known as Oloya, at all their registered Boda Boda stages.
This raised doubts in people’s minds and in the interest of the public, the Public Accounts Committee on Local Government headed by former Gulu District Chairperson Ojara Martin Mapenduzi, thoroughly conducted an undercover investigation which has discovered that Oloya is an assistant to the Town Mayor.
How District Officials Hijacked COVID-19 Cash Relief.
According to the PAC on Local Government, the persons collecting data did an honest job but the collected data was later chenged by the entrants who entered particulars of their relatives, district and sub county officials in stead of the targeted beneficiaries.
“The people who were sent to register did their job but when it reached data entry, names were changed, they brought in people whose identity is not known. Some of them were made to be Boda Bodas, others made to be drivers when they are actually not,” Mapenduzi lamented.
This gave thin opening to masquaraders such as Olaya to fraudelently hijack into the system and ended up becoming a first beneficiary of Nabbanja’s money.
During the investigations, the committee also discovered that money meant for vulnerable groups ended up in the hands of LC III chairpersons, former Division Mayors, politicians, councillors and staff in council offices where the whole data compilation was fraudulently hijacked.
Nakut Faith Loru, the woman MP for Napak District and member of the committee also expressed dismay at the actions of the Gulu District administration.
“This is not the Gulu I knew, it is sad to find out that the people who actually benefited from the relief fund are not the people who should have. It is really painful,” Nakut stated.
At least 11,000 names were raised from Gulu as vulnerable members who required the relief fund, the committee has also discovered that besides presented the wrong people, the number was also inflated.
“The worst part is, those who had no telephone contacts were dumped and replaced by those who you can not even trace,” Amos Okot, MP for Agago North said.
The committee blamed the leadership of Gulu City for manipulating the process to fit their needs.
“There are leaders who manipulated the process and were instructed data entry officials to fill in the names that they brought in total disregard of the procedures,” Mapenduzi remarked.
The disgrantled Chairperson of Boda Boda cyclists in Gulu City, Justine Paul Ochola said Goeffrey Oloya is a ghost name and does not appear in reocords at any of their known stages.
“There is nothing like Oloya Godfrey in our system, the people they gave money to are not known, yet if they had used our association’s office, they would have got the right people because all our members are registered,” Ochola said
