The ongoing crackdown on the alleged misuse of the money meant for cooperatives has taken a twist with the latest information showing that the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance and Secretary to the Treasury Ramathan Ggoobi ordered the Ministry of Trade Permanent Secretary Geraldine Ssali to process payment of some cooperatives.

Ms Geraldine Ssali who was arrested and incarcerated in Luzira Prison was under pressure from the politicians and the Ps Ggoobi to process payment of some cooperatives.  

According to these letters seen by Eagle Online, Goobi told Ms Ssali to process the payments of North Bukeddi Cooperative Union, South Bukedi Cooperative Union and West Acholi Cooperative Union Limited.

Some of these Cooperatives like South Bukedi received money when they were not verified. It’s not clear why Mr Ggoobi would tell or tell a Permanent Secretary to make such payments.

Ggoobi, who is the supervisor of other Permanent Secretaries, told Ssali in one of the letters dated January 13, 2023 told her to pay South Bukedi Cooperative Union Shs2 billion.

According to sources, it was irregular for Ggoobi to tell Ssali to pay the money because it’s supposed to be to her to initiate the process since the cooperatives are under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives.

“The purpose of this letter is twofold; to forward this for further management and advise you to prioritize compensation of the verified Cooperatives Unions within the resources available to the ministry,” Goobi wrote.

Ggoobi’s letter came after South Bukedi Cooperative Union Chairman and Member of Parliament Tororo North County Geoffrey Ekenya requested for the payment.

According to the Parliamentary Committee on Trade report, South Bukedi received shs500m without verification.

MP Ekanya had earlier written to Ggoobi on January 2, 2023, saying that their cooperative had not received any money for compensation.

“The Union has a war debt of claim however, to this date, it has not received any payment whereas all cooperative unions have received part payment…” Ekanya wrote.

In another letter dated September 22, 2022, Ggoobi wrote Ssali telling her to process the payment of the West Acholi Cooperative Union.

In another letter dated August 1, 2022, Ggoobi wrote to Ssali telling her to handle and manage” the request by North Bukedi Cooperative Union.

“Given that your Ministry is responsible for Cooperatives’ registration, licensing and regulation in addition to compensation of claims due to them, it is recommended that the request from NBCU be forwarded to you for further management,” Ggoobi wrote.

Ssali has been temporarily replaced by Alex Kakooza at the Ministry of Trade for the work to continue as she waits for her bail application.  

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The Former Education Ministry Permanent Secretary, Alex Kakooza has been appointed in the acting capacity as Trade Permanent Secretary, replacing Geraldine Ssali who was stealthily arrested by the Anti-Corruption Court for allegedly causing financial loss and colluding with Members of Parliament to embezzle cooperative societies’ funds.

In a letter, dated 25th, July 2024, the trade ministry Under Secretary, Alfred Ayo Andima revealed that the Minister, Mwebesa Francis instructed him to invite Kakooza in the boardroom with the purpose of introducing and welcoming him as the Acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade.

Present in the meeting were; Francis Mwebesa, the Minister of Trade, the Ministers of State, undersecretaries, directors and commissioners of the Ministry.

Kakooza served as the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education up to 2021 and later transferred to the President’s office as Principal Private Secretary to the President.

Geraldine Ssali was charged on July 18, 2024, by the Anti-Corruption Court for allegedly causing financial loss and colluding with Members of Parliament to embezzle cooperative societies’ funds and remanded to Luzira Prison together with Michael Mawanda of Igara East, Ignatius Mudimi of Elgon county and Paul Akamba of Busiki county.

Ssali has been battling with the top management at the ministry with several accusations which saw her being suspended in October, 2023, by the Secretary to the Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi, while serving as the Ministry’s accounting officer on the recommendations of a Parliament inquiry over alleged acts of corruption at the Ministry.

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President Yoweri Museveni has vowed that the fight against corruption is in his hands and just waiting for evidence and action will be taken in crashing the culprits.

He however, urged the youths not to demonstrate, citing funding from foreign opportunists.

“The fight against corruption is in my hands. I just need evidence and action will be taken,” Museveni said.

However, Museveni has severally cited the accounting officers and those doing procurement jobs as the ring-leaders of corruption since they are the guardians of government money.

Museveni noted that Tuesday’s demonstration had two bad elements, one of which was funding from foreign sources that are always meddling in the internal affairs of Africa for the last 600 years ─ slave trade, colonialism, neo-colonialism, genocide, economic exploitation, etc.

“All those involved in the demonstration should know that Uganda is not a neo-colony where those shallow schemes can be deployed,” Museveni said.

He added that the second element was that some of the authors and participants of the demonstrations were planning very bad things against the people of Uganda. Those very bad things will come out in court when those arrested are being tried. It is possible that some of the participants did not know of the planned foreign funding and the planned bad things.

Museveni cautioned that the demonstrators would have listened to the police advice, not to go on with the demonstration though they rubbished the police advice.

He further noted that if the demonstration was a patriotic, anti-corruption, peaceful move, coordinated with the Police, he would have been the first to join.

Museveni reiterated that planners of Tuesday’s demonstration, however, were not bothered with such issues and yet he had politely advised them a few days ago, in the address to the Nation.

“They, obviously, thought that my advice was of no consequence. Please, Ugandans avoid these mistake makers. The evidence in court will shock many. As I said, above, the planners of these demonstrations wanted to do very bad things. The charge by the Police of “idle and disorderly”, I suspect, was used because the deployed personnel did not have all the information. This was a high-quality, intelligence-led operation. I have most of the information,” he said.

He also related to the 20219 march against corruption organized by Edith Nakalema in coordination with police and other security agencies which was peaceful and successful.

“Indeed, in the year 2019, Nakalema organized us and we marched from the city Square through Kampala Road to Jinja Road and went to Kololo. So many people were there- Bishops, Soldiers, Wanainchi, etc. I thought that Nakalema had timed a Sunday because there was neither traffic, nor pedestrians on the road. Nakalema has now told me that it was a Wednesday, the 4th of December, 2019, but that they had organized with the police to block traffic for some hours,” he said.

He has directed Nakalema to co-ordinate with the genuine anti-corruption fighters for a similar effort, especially on a Sunday.

He advised that the heavily populated suburbs of the cities – Kawempe, Bwaise, etc. should never be used for demonstration, because they will damage the little wealth creation that the people are painstakingly building up and Kololo ceremonial grounds, is being repaired now but when the work is finished, Nakalema should organize and assured that he will be there.

“However, those being funded by foreigners, should stop and report to the Minister of State for Ethics, those that have been funding them. We shall not arrest them. In any case, we know a lot about the goings on in those groups. Our interest is to immunize Uganda against the schemes of the imperialists and their agents,” he urged.

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