The office of the prime Minister and the Speaker of the House are at odds after it was revealed yesterday morning that someone in that office tried to stop her attempts to collect compensation for the irregular benefits she received in the Karamoja iron sheets incident.
Dramatic events occurred at OPM and the factory hired to produce the iron sheets as Speaker Anita Among demanded to know why the 500 iron sheets she paid for compensation had not arrived at OPMstores in Namanve after one month.
On Wednesday morning, Ms. Among sent the team to OPM from her office, escorted by members of her security detail, with instructions to physically present and recover a letter authorizing the delivery of the iron sheets by the company hired to make them.
Ms.Among has been linked to the scam, which also accused 22 other ministers and other officials, along with vice president Jessica Alupo, and Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja.
However, Ms. Among is alleged to have purchased 500 iron sheets from MM Integrated Steel Mill Ltd on March 13 to replace the wrongly provided items. She apparently also spoke with OPM Under-Secretary Geoffrey Sseremba, who assured her that she would be freed.
The speaker is supposedly unaware of the authorization letter’s inexplicable disappearance after it allegedly left OPM. due to this, no iron sheets were produced or sent. This cast doubt on the Speaker’s assertion to her colleagues in front of the entire Parliament on March 15, that she had returned the 500 iron sheets.
Ms. Among is believed to have initiated an exchange through a series of correspondences after discovering this information from her own sources.
The Speaker’s staff inquired about the authorization letter with Mr. Sseremba at OPM, and the official reportedly replied that he had sent it but was unable to explain why it hadn’t reached the steel company.
He was then instructed by the Speaker’s staff to locate a copy of the letter dated March 30 and send it to them so that they could deliver it themselves. Mr. Sserembra did that. It is unclear why OPM employees failed to deliver the letter to the company that made the Karamoja iron sheets.
After delivering the letter to the management of MM Integrated Steel Mills on Mulwana Road in the Kampala Industrial area, the Speaker’s team left for the place of delivery. The manager assured them that the iron sheets would be delivered on Thursday morning.
The first amount the Speaker paid was Shs21, 225,000( for each sheet, which is going to rate for sheets with the same specifications in the market. However, OPM rejected this on the grounds that they already worked with a particular steel supplier to produce the sheets they needed.
MM Integrated Steel Mills allegedly requested Shs71,000 for each sheet, putting the total price of the 500 iron sheets to Shs35,500,000, which Ms. Among properly paid.
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OPM representatives had instructed Among to purchase 28-size gauge regular corrugated galvanized, pre-painted iron sheets for Shs71,000 per piece.
The Speaker was compelled to give the supplier a top-up of Shs14,000,000. It’s unclear how OPM representatives found the business or how they calculated the fee.
As instructed by the president this week, any minister or MP who wants to return the diverted iron sheets to OPM would have to pay Shs71,000 per piece.
People who acquired 2,000 pieces from OPM, for example, will have to pay Shs 124 million instead of Shs84.9 million for the same gauge and quantity of iron sheets on the free market.
However, when these reports went to the MM Integrated Steel Mills offices, the managers would only confirm that their sheets were produced only for OPM and would not discuss the pricing.
In a letter to the Speaker dated March 16, 2023, Mr. Sseremba stated that they would get the iron sheets from the supplier and then invite the Uganda National Bureau of Standards to check that they complied with specifications.
In a letter dated March 30 to the director of sales and marketing at MMI Steel, Mr. Sseremba requested that only 500 iron sheets be produced for Ms. Among and delivered to only OPM. This particular letter is one that is alleged to have been lost in transit.
In 2022, as part of a community empowerment plan intended to help bring peace to the unresting Karamoja sub-region, the government purchased 10,000 iron sheets for distribution to reformed warriors.
However, thousands of iron sheets were given in parcels to ministers and lawmakers rather than the intended recipients. After the issue became public, police were instructed to conduct criminal investigations into the diversion, which resulted in the arrest and custody of Mary Gorreti Kitutu, the minister for Karamoja Affairs. Kitutu is accused of conspiring to swindle and causing the loss of public property while in custody and in court.
On April 3, President Museveni gave the order for whoever took the iron sheets to either pay its price or give them back. President accused them of theft, ordered that the implicated people be handled by the police in accordance with the nation’s criminal code, and warned that he would take political action against them.
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