Some four (04) officials from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) have been detained by Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema of the State House Anti-Graft team over allegedly inflating prices for COVID-19 relief food.
The suspects include; Ms Christine Gwatudde (the Permanent Secretary OPM), Martin Owor (the Commissioner Disaster Preparedness also the head of COVID-19 relief management), Joel Wanjala (the Assistant Commissioner Procurement) and Fred Lutimba (the Commissioner Disaster Management).
These public servants were on Thursday (today) detained following directives by President Museveni on Wednesday to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit to investigate alleged irregularities in COVID-19 related food procurement exercise.
“The President on Wednesday directed us to investigate allegations of inflated prices of COVID-19 relief food procurement. We got evidence that the officials were inflating figures yet there were suppliers willing to supply government on lower prices. We also noticed that the officers had refused to award tenders to those willing to supply government at lower prices. The low price suppliers had the capacity to supply government but they were denied contracts,” Col Edith Nakalema told journalists today.
The four were summoned to Office of the President before they were arrested and handed over to detectives attached to Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
