By Spy Uganda
Kampala: The Inspector General of Government Beti Kamya has announced that she will revisit the probe into National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC)’s Shs17bn prepaid metres botched deal that was allegedly “swept under the carpet” by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA) boss Benson Turamye.
Whistle blowers from with NWSC reached out to the IGG claiming that Turamye buried a probe into the procurement that cost government billions of shillings and his wife Ruth Kembabazi who was hired by the water body in 2018 was first tracked in a questionable promotion by NWSC boss Dr. Silver Mugisha.
“I want to assure Ugandans that the IG will reopen the Shs17 billion NWSC procurement of prepaid meters without fear or favour,” Kamya said.
Previously a whistleblower petitioned Kamya to revisit investigations into a stalled probe into the purchase of faulty prepaid meters.
The whistleblowers want the IGG to probe the Executive Director of Public Procurement and Disposal of assets Authority (PPDA), Canon Benson Turamye and his counterpart at National Water and sewerage corporation (NWSC) claiming the two were allegedly involved in blocking an investigation into a dubious procurement deal where NWSC procured water prepaid meters with functionality issues at a cost of Shs17 billion.
It is alleged that PPDA boss Turamye ignored the investigations into the Shs17 billion NWSC procurement deal and instead Turamye exploited how he could benefit from the dubious procurement deal.
According to the whistleblower, the deal would now have NWSC Boss Dr. Silver Mugisha promote Turamye’s wife so that on the other hand the PPDA boss Turamye could kill the investigation into the messy procurement deal.
Ruth Kembabazi, Turamye’s wife had been recruited by NWSC as a senior Internal Auditor on August 6, 2018 at a salary scale of 3.1.
However, in a surprise move that shocked senior staff at NWSC, Mugisha abruptly promoted Kembabazi to Senior Compliance Officer on September 2, 2020, earning her a salary scale of 3.10, which is almost the salary scale of principal officers at NWSC.
Whistleblowers say Mugisha ignored to promote staff who had worked for five years at that public company, well knowing that Kembabazi’s promotion would save him from PPDA investigation as agreed with Turamye.
The whistleblowers allege that it is this stalled investigation that led to the fallout between former NWSC board chairman Eng. Christopher Ebal.
The jilted staff at NWSC still wonder what special qualifications, skills and experience Kembabazi possessed to attain to be promoted in a period of just two years at NWSC.
On the other hand, the rest of PPDA investigators have never forgiven Turamye for aborting the investigation of the Shs17 billion dubious procurement and are calling for a hammer to fall on his head. Turamye is accused in several other dealings.
