Agago: IGG blows NUSAF III scandal after GISO and councillors dupe beneficiaries

By Mildred Auma

Agago—August 29, 2020: A group of leaders, including politicians, in Agago district are on edge over allegations of abuse of office and diversion of animals procured for the community by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) through the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund—NUSAF III Project.

Their treacherous act came to light as a result of community complaints, whistleblowers, and NUSAF III community monitoring group members.

This drew the attention of the Inspector General of Government—IGG, who then launched an investigation into the alleged scam.

It has been discovered that some leaders deleted the names of some beneficiaries and replaced them with their own or relatives’ names.

This resulted in the recovery of ten oxen and six ox-ploughs, which were distributed two weeks ago. These provisions were discovered in the homes of such greedy leaders in the Omiya Pachwa sub-county.

Among the leaders whose names have come into disrepute as a result of this scandal are Omiya Pacwa LC5 councillor John Bosco Oloya, Raymond Otim, the LCIII chairperson of Omiya Pacwa sub-county, Gombolola Internal Security Officer (GISO) Geoffrey Omony, Cicilio Otim, councillor III of Lojim parish, and two teachers, Francis Okidi and Thomas Ongom.

Doreen Acayo, GISO’s mother, is among the leaders’ relatives who fraudulently benefited from the project. She is the mother of the GISO, Mr. Geoffrey Omony. Another is Akello Irene, who is the sister of Omiya Pacwa’s LC5 councillor and Nighty Adonga, a councillor III Lojim Parish.

Nelson Mandela Okidi, a member of the NUSAF III project’s community monitoring group, told TND News that the above leaders deleted the names of the rightful beneficiaries and replaced them with their own and their relatives.

According to Okidi, the beneficiaries and the community approached him after a group of beneficiaries, mostly women, failed to receive the distributed resources.

Mr Okidi states that he investigated and verified the claims that he forwarded to the Inspectorate of Government.

Mr Victus Omoding, the Inspectorate of Government’s NUSAF III Focal Point Person, stated that these leaders are ineligible to qualify because they are public officers and thus in gainful employment.

According to Omoding, NUSAF III is intended for “the poorest of poor communities.”

He suspects that the leaders must have intimidated Bradford Okello, the Community-Based Facilitator, into entering their names into the NUSAF III Management Information System in order to benefit from the program.

Out of the recovered items, two ox ploughs were given to their rightful owners, while the remaining four ox ploughs and ten oxen were given to the sub-county for distribution.

The publication has learned that it will be distributed once the rightful beneficiaries have been identified next week.

“We are recovering the animals and redistributing them to the appropriate recipients while dealing administratively with these leaders,” Okidi told our Agago correspondent.