KAMPALA: Police said Thursday it had commenced fresh investigations into the theft of railway material by Chinese company, Tian Tang Group .
A police source said it comes after the Auditor General has recommended a fresh investigation at the Uganda Railways Corporation following the mismanagement of a case involving the theft of railways material.
Tian Tang was found in possession of stolen railway material and a case was reported in court.
URC had sued Chinese firm, Tian Tang Group Limited for alleged theft and vandalism of railway materials valued at more than sh12b but after alleged bribery, they withdrew the case.
Related articles
Tian is accused of of destroying 14 tons of railway materials which was recovered from the Chinese factory in Mbalala in Mukono district.
The evidence before the court indicated that URC, which is in charge of maintaining all railway infrastructure, installations, locomotives and equipment on behalf of the Ugandan government faced the challenges of vandalism on a number of occasions.
“Following a tip-off and a court-sanctioned search of the defendant’s/Tian Tang premises at Mbalala Mukono conducted by the Uganda police, 14 tons of the plaintiff’s railway materials/equipment were recovered at the defendant’s aforesaid premises and in a state where they were not re-usable, neither could they be reinstalled by the plaintiff thereby occasioning the plaintiff colossal financial loss,” read the suit.
In 2021, Mukono grade two magistrate, Steven Waidhuuba issued an order to search the premises of Tian Tang for rail sleepers, steel rails and Kyaci materials.
According to URC, Tian had converted some of the materials to different uses.
“The plaintiff shall aver and contend that all of the said actions of the defendant were illegal, callous, criminal, detrimental to a public good railway works infrastructure, and in most material particular, the defendant facilitated vandalism of the plaintiff’s railway installations/equipment/materials by providing a black market for the same reason of which the plaintiff shall propose to the court that the defendant be condemned to punitive damages,” the suit added then.
It is not clear how the above case was withdrawn from court.
However, in a twist of events, Uganda Railways withdrew the case, allegedly for an out of court settlement.
“During the year, the Managing Director of Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) instituted an investigation on the stolen and recovered railway materials from two steel companies,” the Auditor General wrote in his 2022/2022 report.
“However, the review of the investigation reports and other documents related to stolen and recovered railway materials revealed that URC went into an out of court settlement which resulted into a total compensation loss of UGX. 12.76Bn from both the two steel companies and an indication that the legal cases were mismanaged,” he adds.
The report indicates that URC gave excuses such as “it is difficult to prove that the two companies were responsible for vandalising sections of the line yet the materials recovered were not for the whole section.”
In the end, “The factory in Mukono negotiated to pay less as it claimed to be on the verge of bankruptcy due to Covid 19.”
This did not go well with the Auditor General who advised the Board to review the process of out of court settlement to ensure transparent and verifiable procedures.
“In the event that collusion is identified, appropriate action including recovery measures from responsible parties should be instituted,” the Auditor General wrote.
Do you want to share a story, comment or opinion regarding this story or others, Email us at newsdayuganda@gmail.com Tel/WhatsApp........0726054858
Discussion about this post