KAMPALA: The parliamentary committee on trade has asked Secretary to Treasury Ramathan Ggoobi to sack trade ministry permanent secretary Geraldine Ssali for reportedly inflating the price of renovation works at the Ministry offices at Farmers House to a tune of sh2b.
“The Committee therefore finds that Geraldine Ssali is personally liable for the dubious and mysterious inflation of the estimated contract price from sh4.664b to sh6.2b without any formal or legal justification,” Mpaka Mwine, the committee chairperson, said.
Parliament’s Trade Committee also recommended for the prosecution of Daniel Kalule (Transport Officer, Ministry of Trade) for creating seven ghost fuel cards, resulting into the loss of sh362m. Kalule had claimed the fuel was utilised by three officials at the ministry, but these denied ever seeing the said fuel cards.
Trade minister Francis Mwebesa recently threatened to sue the government on grounds that he had spent a lot of his personal money to fuel his official car.
Mwebesa said he was disappointed to find out that a very low-ranking officer at the Ministry was using the fuel card attached to him and there was no intention to hand it back.
“I am almost taking Government to court because I have been spending my own money yet I have heard that some people have been taking millions. I want to ask the Government to pay me this money regardless of everything,” said Mwebesa.
Other scandals at the ministry
Recently, legislators sitting on the Parliamentary Committee on trade were shocked on revelation that sh400m was spent in moving documents from the Ministry’s office in Kampala to its stores in Entebbe.
The Ministry offices are located at Farmers House in Kampala Central Business District. However, there was a need to transfer documents to the Ministry’s stores in Entebbe, just about 50km away, all this came at a cost of sh400m.
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