Two arrested over ghost Boreholes in Masindi

By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,

PARROTS UG|SOCIETY STORY:

At least two district civil servants in Masindi have been arrested over mismanagement of public funds meant to construct safe water boreholes in the area.
The arests were directed by the minister for Economic Monitoring, Peter Ogwang following a visit to inspect and commission a borehole in Kimengo Masindi district, but to his surprise, the minister found ghost boreholes.

“I went to inspect and commission a borehole in Kimengo in Masindi (district) and what I found was a ghost borehole and yet the District went ahead and paid the contractor. There are 3 other non-existent boreholes in the Sub-county,” the minister revealed to Ugandans online.

It was established that the officials had approved payment to the contractor, funds amounting to 88 million shillings for four ghost boreholes. The most shocking revelation, he said, was that the district went ahead and paid the contractor yet the borehole had not been drilled.

This made the minister to run emotional ordering for the arrest and investigation of some district officials after establishing that they had led him to commission a ghost borehole.

Two civil servants including; the Principal District Internal Auditor Okise Patrick, Finance Officer Richard Obwana, have been arrested and handed over to police CID whereas the district Engineer, Eng Muhumuza John, the Procurement Officer, Water Engineer among others are still on run and police has commenced a manhunt against them.

In related stories, on Saturday the Minister caused the arrest of the Kiryandongo Town Clerk Rauben Manigamukama over alleged mismanagement of 1.97b, funds meant for construction of an Administration block.

“Today, I had to hand over the Kiryandongo Town Clerk and others to CID Police after they failed to account for funds meant for the construction of the Kiryandongo Administration Block. Despite receiving nearly half of the funds, the project has stalled and is not even at 50%. ” Ogwang said.

The minister who was in company of the minister for Bunyoro Affairs, Jennifer Kacha Namuyangu has warned Government official entrusted with management of public infrastructure projects to desist from misappropriation of resources or they face the tough hand of the law against graft.