Police summons Top Kole District staff over misuse of 370M road funds
By Denish Ongora (denish.ongora@vol.co.ug)
Kole
Police of Kole Central Police Station have summoned 13 civil servants of Kole District Local Government over allegations of having a hand in the misuse of 370 million.
The money is part of the 1 billion shillings roads maintenance funds received from the government for the financial year 2023/2024.
North Kyoga Regional Police spokesperson, SP Patrick Jimmy Okema said some of the civil servants summoned by Police to help in investigations of the matter include, the district Chief Administrative Officer, District Engineer, Chief Finance Office among others.
It comes after Kole North MP, Dr. Samual Opio Acuti and his Kole South counterpart, Peter Ocen Akalo accused some of the district leaders of mismanagement of part of the roads rehabilitation funds.
Kole North MP, Dr Samuel Opio Acuti said several irregularities have been cited in road works in Kole district and some of the road projects have been listed as complete whereas they are not.
According to Opio during the routine monitoring and oversight, they found many irregularities which include discrepancies in the fuel used against what is in the voucher, the kilometers of the roads worked on amongst others.
Dr Opio Acuti called for investigation into the alleged misuse of the funds.
MP Peter Ocen Akalo alleged that the amount of money used for quarrying murram for road works was inflated.
However, Kole District Chairman, Andrew Moses Awany denied loss of part of the road rehabilitation funds and asked the legislators to seek redress from the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, IGG and other relevant investigative bodies.
Awany says, Kole is amongst the districts in Northern Uganda with the best maintained district and feeder roads.
According to Awany, MP Opio and Ocen’s accusation are baseless and are only meant to satisfy their political interests.
