The Minister of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development Matia Kasaija has returned the iron sheets to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) stores in Namanve.
This comes at a time when two ministers have been charged and remanded ministers who include; Karamoja Mary Goreti Kitutu and State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development Amos Lugolobi for mismanaging roofing sheets that were meant for the impoverished people in Karamoja.
The State minister for Karamoja, Agnes Nandutu is currently before Police CID, Kibuli over the same issue. Speaker Anita Among returned her sheets but he was meant with resistance from CID operatives who later collected profiled them as evidence.
Appearing before the Presidential Affairs Committee of Parliament, Kasaija said he received the 300 iron sheets but he didn’t know that they were meant for the impoverished people in Karamoja. “I have never applied for iron sheets. I got them. Some called me and said that the office of the prime minister is donating iron sheets and we have some which I will bring you to sign and the next thing is iron sheets were delivered,” he said. “Even now, I have a bundle of 300 iron sheets and I don’t know if they were delivered to my home in Kampala. They are in my compound. The other ones I took, I was told that they were meant to support my constituency and I gave 450 iron sheets to a school and the balance is still in my store in Kibaale and I am looking for who else to give,” he said.
He pleaded innocence saying ” please crucify me knowing that I am innocent. The iron sheets found themselves in my compound. I follow the Constitution. These questions should be focused on the Office of the Prime Minister. We are victims. I never asked for these iron sheets”.
Kasaija is among the top ministers who benefited from the iron sheets which were allegedly meant for people in Karamoja. The ministers involved in the scandal include; Rebecca Kadaga, Jacob Oboth Oboth, Hamson Obua, Amos Lugolobi and sundry.
