Finance Minister, Matia Kasaija on Tuesday returned iron sheets that he had received from Karamoja Affairs Ministry, under the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).
A representative for the minister returned the iron sheets to the Office of the Prime Minister’s store in Namanve Industrial Area.
While addressing journalists in Namanve, Mr David Kayongo, a senior assistant secretary for finance and administration at OPM who has been stationed at the OPM’s Namanve stores to oversee the process said Kasaija returned the iron sheets but were less by two.
“He brought back 298 out of the 300 iron sheets. He has promised to bring the balance,” Mr Kayongo said.
Kasaija is the latest minister to return iron sheets after Speaker Anita Among, State Minister for Finance and Planning Amos Lugoloobi and State Minister for Defence, Jacob Oboth-Oboth.
The Speaker’s team returned 500 pieces while Lugoloobi and Oboth-Oboth returned 600 and 300 iron sheets respectively.
More ministers implicated in the saga are expected to follow President Museveni’s directive issued in an April 3 letter stating that they refund the mabaati (roofing items) or the equivalent money in value.
Kasaija was not available for comment by press time. When the Monitor contacted the minister on his known phone number, his bodyguard instead picked up the call and said he was held up in a meeting.
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Kasaija on March 1 appeared before Parliament’s Presidential Affairs committee to make a personal statement on the iron sheets that he allegedly received from the Office of the Prime Minister.
“I never applied for those iron sheets. Never. I did not apply for them. I did not ask ‘please, give me.’ Yes, I got. Someone says ‘Honorable Kasaija, the Office of the Prime Minister is donating iron sheets for you,” Kasaija said at the time.
“..So, the next thing I see the iron sheets have been delivered. Even now there is a bundle of 300. I do not know how it came into my compound. You can come and I take you to go and see them. I did not. The other ones that I took, I was told it was to support my constituency and true, I have done that precisely and given 450 iron sheets to a school which I finished fundraising for recently.
Background
Kasaija is among the several top government officials implicated over receiving iron sheets that were meant for vulnerable people in Karamoja.
The iron sheets had been budgeted for in a Shs 39 billion supplementary budget that Parliament had passed in December 2021.
The alleged diversion attracted uproar from the public prompting parallel investigations including from police and parliament to probe the saga.
The ministers allege that Karamoja Affairs Minister Mary Goretti Kitutu sold them the idea to apply for the iron sheets.
As Kitutu is currently out on bail after being charged and remanded at Luzira prison over the saga, are panicking that they might face court over the same scandal.
