City lawyer Bob Kasango has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for the theft of Shs 15.4bn pension funds.
Kasango who was convicted alongside three senior officials in the ministry of Public Service, was also ordered by the Anti-Corruption court to refund Shs 5bn of the stolen.
Also convicted and sentenced are; Jimmy Lwamafa, the former permanent secretary for ministry of Public Service, former principal accountant in the pensions department from the same ministry, Christopher Obey, former director research and development Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa.
The accused persons were also convicted of conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to commit a felony and forgery of a judicial document.
Lwamafa was sentenced to 9 years in prison, Obey is to serve 14 years, Kunsa 9 years while Kasango who was accused of stealing two judicial documents to facilitate diversion of the fund to his Hall and Partners firm is to serve 16 years in prison. The ministry officials are to also refund Shs 3.5bn each of the stolen money.
The Anti-Corruption court presided over by Justice Margaret Tibulya heard that there was overwhelming evidence that proved that the accused persons forged a court order, a certificate of taxation and a certificate of costs directing the attorney general to pay Hall and Partners the money that was meant for pension and gratuity of more than 6,340 pensioners between 2011 and 2012.
Although Obey and Kunsa said that they signed documents leading to the diversion of the money without reading through the documents, Justice Tibulya rejected their defence, saying that they were seniors who shouldn't have committed such an error.
Court assessors, Nelson Kamiza and Flavia Kisaakye Kabanda had previously asked court to acquit the suspects advising the trial judge that the testimonies made by the witnesses couldn't warrant a conviction because it was lacking.
But Tibulya disagreed with them saying that "the unbinding opinion by the court assessors is far way below the weight of the evidence by the prosecutors. This is not the first time the officials are being convicted of diversion of public resources.
In 2016, Anti-Corruption court judge Lawrence Giduddu found the three officials guilty of fraudulently budgeting Shs 88.2 billion as civil servants' contribution to National Social Security Fund (NSSF) well knowing that public servants are exempted from contributing to NSSF. The money, however, ended up in the hands of 'ghost' recipients.
The ministry officials’ lawyer John Isabirye said his clients are going to appeal against the sentence because they are being ordered to refund part of the stolen money that was solely taken by Kasango.