Kampala Uganda – Geraldine Ssali, the Permanent Secretary of the Trade Ministry, has been arrested and taken to the Anti-Corruption Court. Ssali was earlier summoned by police over the mismanagement of funds meant for compensation of cooperatives associations’ losses during previous wars in Uganda.
The State has charged Ssali with causing financial loss and conspiring with Members of Parliament to steal cooperatives’ cash. According to a report by Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE), Ssali’s Ministry made fraudulent payments totaling 48.77 billion Shillings between FY 2019/2020 and 2022/2023.
The report, sanctioned by Speaker of the 11th Parliament R.t Hon. Anita Among on August 25, 2023, revealed that the payments were either in excess or completely outside the amounts allocated to specific Cooperatives in the Ministry’s work plan.
The Committee cited several Cooperatives that illegally received payments, including:
– Lambuli Central Pulpery Cooperative Society (4.70 billion Shillings)
– Jinja Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd (4.8 billion Shillings)
– Buyaka Cooperative Society (3.5 billion Shillings)
– Masaaba Cooperative Union (5 billion Shillings)
– Bumwambu Cooperative Society Ltd (6 billion Shillings)
– Masaka Cooperative Union (7 billion Shillings)
– Bwavumpologoma Growers Cooperative Union Ltd (2.75 billion Shillings)
The Committee recommended that Ssali be investigated by the DPP with the view of prosecution under Section 79 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2015 for unlawfully authorizing a 1.74 billion Shillings payment to Okoro Coffee Growers Cooperative Union Limited in Zombo before its verification.
