The Government has set up a multi-agency team to investigate the alleged mismanagement and/or diversion of iron sheets meant for vulnerable people in the Karamoja sub-region. The project was to have been handled by the Office of the Prime Minister.

Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga told journalists that the investigative team will have specialized personnel, including detectives from the Police Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID, the State House Anti-corruption Unit, and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Enanga said that the investigations will begin with immediate effect.

The setting up of the team to dig deeper into the Karamoja iron sheets scandal comes a few days after President Yoweri Museveni directed the relevant government agencies, including the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to have the iron sheets scandal investigated expeditiously and the culprits brought to book.

The Karamoja iron sheets scandal came to the public limelight over a month ago when operatives from the Internal Security Organization (ISO) and State House Anti-corruption Unit, retrieved iron sheets from the home of the mother and brother of the Minister for Karamoja Affairs, Dr. Mary Goretti Kitutu in Namisindwa District.  

Subsequently, a whistleblower released on social media a list of senior government officials, including ministers and members of Parliament who were irregularly allocated the iron sheets meant for the Karamoja sub-region. Police spokesperson Fred Enanga says the investigations will be wide and all the people implicated will be questioned.

This comes hours after the Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Kamya also told journalists that the Inspectorate had also begun investigations into the scandal.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested and paraded before court five former employees of the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation who are accused of causing the government a financial loss of over 2.26 billion shillings

The suspects include the former Managing Directories and finance manager who are said to have committed the crime between 2019 and 2022 in a printing contract of the Electoral Commission

Some of the other accused persons are still at large and Enanga said that the police are currently hunting them down.