By Stanley Ebele
Kalaki-Police in Kalaki have sealed off the district finance department as they step up investigations about the alleged misuse of the 350 million shillings, which was meant for road construction.
The money was sent to the district under the Office of the Prime Minister following a request by the district leadership but it was allegedly misappropriated by the District Eng. Ronald Kanze who has been in the centre of the investigation. Eng. Kaze was last week arrested but later given a police bond. See more here: https://lbs.co.ug/2022/09/29/kalaki-district-engineer-arrested-over-misappropriation-of-shs350m/
The DPC, Edison Muhangi confirmed the police presence at the finance department saying it’s part of the major investigation into the misuse of the Shs 350 million. He said the police were looking through some of the documents and receipts, as they probe the scam.
He said police shall obtain statements and other relevant documents from other witnesses including the staff working at the Finance department and district councilors.
“The deployment is there, not in the whole district. We are only interested in the finance department. All offices are supposed to be open, but now even those who are not in the finance department are telling the police in the district that we are not going to work. In fact those in the department (finance), we want them to come because we want to recover some documents and statements from them.” said Muhangi in a telephone interview.
The probe into the allegations of embezzlement of the funds came to the limelight when the Kalaki Woman MP Jenifer Ayoo who is also the Chairperson District Roads Committee called on an investigation into the misuse of the fund.
This was after the MP conducted a monitoring visit to the district last week in which she discovered the Kalaki- Alebtong Road which was under construction under the supervision of district Eng. Kanze had been abandoned by motorists due to poor workmanship.
The road connects Kalaki and Alebtong districts via Anyara and Ogwolo sub counties in Kalaki.
The money was a grant from the Office of the Prime Minister to support road construction in Kalaki district but – just after the project was completed flash floods washed away the culverts cutting off the road. The works included opening and murraming, installation of culverts and opening of water runways.
