Man Eating Where He Worketh!

In today’s Uganda, it’s not just about the monthly salary. You simply have to ‘eat where you worketh’. Fringe benefits or perks of the job, actually mean something along the lines of company car, house, bonuses and free education for the children which, a company bestows on some of its top executives – well at least that is what we think.

In reality, it does not work that way. Executive has forgone waiting for the end of the financial year to get his bonus, and as a result has resorted to kick-backs, side deals, back handers and generally siphoning off money from the accounts they control for their private use.

Back in the day, for Graduate, the dream job was to land a job with Uganda Revenue Authority and preferably get posted to one of the border crossings or Entebbe Airport. There, the fringe benefits come in almost on a daily by making his cut off every container that crossed into Uganda. Some of them made huge sums of money that they actually forgot about end-of-month payday.

 

URA Was The Place To Work To Get Rich Fast

The tale is told of Official who used to work in the office of the Prime Minister on some projects upcountry. It is said that when Ministry of Finance released the money for the said projects, it was supposed to be paid in the project account. Instead, it was paid into Official’s personal account from which, he would dole out the money. Apart from distributing some money to the bona fide projects, a large chunk of it would also be dispersed to his personal projects like the block of flats he built on Entebbe road, a couple of houses in Ntinda and a student’s hostel. Incredibly enough, nobody saw this as being odd – money being paid into a personal account rather than that of the said project.

 

Damien Akankwasa Was Into Home Banking

Remember how former National Forestry Authority executive director Damien Akankwasa shot to fame in 2009? It’s not because he planted eucalyptus trees all over the county, but because of his wife -Juliet Katusiime. Well Julie, decided to steal hubby’s dime – not dime that was in the bank, but dime that was hidden somewhere under the bed in their matrimonial bedroom. And wait for it, wait for – it wasn’t just a ka-40k or a ka-250k but, a staggering Sh900 million!

 

Did Julie Akankwasa Steal Or Merely help Herself To Her Share Of The Loot

To the best of my knowledge, the job description of the Principal Accountant in the Office of the Prime Minister in part reads as follows: ‘To be responsible for providing guidance and technical support to OPM on proper management and accountability for the financial resources of the OPM in accordance with the established financial laws.’

Except that when Geoffrey Kazinda was principal accountant at OPM, he added his own brief to the job description - that of man eating where he worketh. Come 2017, the IGG accused him of amassing wealth estimated at sh4.6bn and living a luxury lifestyle which was not commensurate with his income as a civil servant and off to Luzira he went.

 

Geoffrey Luzinda

Enter Private Bright Turyatunga of the Special Forces Command.  A couple of weeks ago, Bright in his wisdom as an operative of SFC and an ISO informant, also sought to eat where he worketh. With insider information, he and his buddies trailed a GS4 bullion van carrying some sh2.4bn from Mukono to Kampala and somewhere in Kyambogo, they ambushed it. Except, that like Official in the office of The Prime Minister, Kazinda and Akankwasa, he got caught. Well tell a lie, in an ensuing shootout, he was shot dead.    

 

Bright Turyatunga Put His Special Forces Skills To Good Use 

One thing that Official, Akankwasa, Kazinda and Turyatunga all had in common apart from pilfering, was that they didn’t just take a slice. They took more than that – enough to make it worth their while doing a stint in Luzira or ending up in a coffin if they got caught. 

Photos: Uganda Revenue Authority, Weekly Observer, Eagle.co.ug, Daily Monitor.