Several senior officials from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) have been arrested by the State House Anti-corruption unit for allegedly inflating prices relief food.
The officers, arrested include the permanent secretary Christine Guwatudde Kintu, accounting officer Joe Wanjala, assistant commissioner procurement Fred Mutimba and commissioner disaster management (head COVID-19) Martin Owor.
Lt Col Edith Nakalema, the head of the State House Anti-corruption Unit, notes that her unit carried out a special investigation on the on-going COVID-19 food procurement exercise and established that the accounting officers in OPM were inflating prices for maize flour and beans procured as relief food for vulnerable families.
Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire says that police are going to interrogate the arrested officials as well as the suppliers who claim to have lower food prices whose offers were allegedly rejected.
The government started distributing of food and other essential items to 1.5 million people in Kampala and Wakiso districts as an intervention towards vulnerable communities, and families whose livelihood was affected by the ongoing lockdown.
Each beneficiary receives three kilograms of beans, six kilograms of flour and 1/2kg of salt. Lactating mothers and the sick are given two kilograms of powdered milk and two kilograms of sugar.
Some of the beneficiaries have complained about the quality of the supplies especially beans. Indeed, state minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Musa Ecweru yesterday admitted that the supplied "beans are not first-class."
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