Charles Bwiiso, the State Attorney, was arrested in a joint operation of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit and police after they were tipped off that he, Bwino, had asked for shs3 million from the suspect’s family to kill the defilement case by closing the file.
State attorney caught red handed receiving a shs1.5 million bribe-State House Anti-Corruption Unit
A Masindi Resident State Attorney has been arrested by State House Anti -Corruption Unit over receiving a shs1.5 million bribe to “kill” a defilement case against a suspected defiler.
However, the suspect’s family negotiated to pay shs1.5 million, but also reported the matter to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit that planted operatives near the State Attorney’s office.
“Bwiiso was caught red handed receiving a deposit of shs1.5 million from the suspects’ family,” said the State House Anti-Corruption Unit.
This case began when the offense of defilement was reported to Masindi Police Station vide CRB 149/2022 against Joseph Arinaitwe.
However, for more than 10 days, the suspect was never brought before before court to answer charges of aggravated defilement.
Airnaitwe’s family and that of the victim agreed on an out-of-court settlement and this was communicated to the Resident State Attorney to withdraw the case.
When Bwiiso, the State Attorney, heard this he demanded for shs3 million from the family of the suspect.
Corruption in the form of bribes, kickbacks and other forms of backsheesh are said to be rampant in the districts of Uganda.
A month ago, Raphael Magyezi, the Minister of Local Government, warned that if nothing is done to scale back corruption at district level, the central government may be left without nothing else to do but take back some of the responsibilities given to the local administrations under the system of decentralisation.
In this case, the functions which would be re-centralised and the districts would no longer have the power to recruit workers, administer justice and oversee land management, three areas which have become sources of corruption in districts.
“I see a lot of agitations to take back some of the powers that have been decentralised. The argument is one — they tell me your people are corrupt,” Magyezi said.
“Sometimes it is hard to resist those agitations. Therefore, I would like to remind you to stick to your role of monitoring and supervising government programmes and projects in your districts, municipalities and cities, so we can have value for money,” he added.
In this context, three weeks ago, the state minister for Local Government Rusoke Busingye said that 36 parish chiefs and principal town agents in Kagadi district used forged academic papers to get appointed to the positions they currently hold and so ordered that they be arrested for forgery and dishonesty.
The minister effectively invoked the Uganda Public Service Standing Orders, which under Disciplinary Procedures (F - s) 1, it is stated that, “Any act done without reasonable excuse by a public officer, which amounts to failure to perform any duty assigned to him or her, or which contravenes any laws relating to the Public Service or which is otherwise prejudicial to the efficient conduct of the Public Service or tends to bring the Public Service into disrepute constitutes misconduct.”
The said misconduct falls under X of the same clause which defines provides that “falsification of records or documents” is misconduct and therefore grounds for dismissal and legal action.
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