Kole District Commercial Officer Arrested for Mismanaging Emyooga Funds

Police us holding Joseph Okello, the Commercial Officer of Kole District in Northern Uganda on allegations of mismanaging Emyooga funds.

Without giving further details, Police CID spokesperson, ASP Charles Twiine, confirmed the development, adding that Okello was arrested with other SACCO leaders in the district.

“Police in Kole has arrested the District Commercial officer Joseph Okello and other Sacco leaders for mismanaging 50 Million EMYOGA Money,” says ASP Twiine.

“Police to recover the money and have the suspects prosecuted,” he adds.

Emyooga programme was launched in July last year targeting Ugandans in the informal sector clustered in 18 groups that include, among others, boda boda riders, carpenters, tailors, welders, fishermen, taxi, vendors and salon operators.

However, there have been several complaints of mismanagement of the same funds from the members of the public who cite irregularities including ghost SACCOs receiving money.

On Tuesday last week, Deputy Speaker Anita Among on Tuesday last week accorded the 529 lawmakers a week-long recess and directed them to investigate the specific irregularities in the Emyooga funds disbursement exercise. These will then report back to the House with detailed reports about their findings, which will inform the next course of action.

She also issued guidelines that the legislators had to follow on their fact finding mission about Emyooga.

“When you go to the constituency, you need to find out how much money was given to each district. What was the criteria of disbursing this money to the beneficiaries? Are there real beneficiaries or do you have ghost beneficiaries? Are there businesses that have benefited or not,” Among directed.

The decision to dispatch the MPs on a fact finding mission, according to Ms Among, is to ensure that funds earmarked for the recently launched Parish Development Model do not suffer the same fate.

The Members of Parliament have since returned from the recess and are expected to present their findings once the matter comes up for debate.