{UAH} Pension thieves lose Shs15.4 billion appeal

Pension thieves lose Shs15.4 billion appeal

FRIDAY JULY 30 2021

The ministry's former director for research and development, Mr Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa (L) and former permanent secretary Jimmy Lwamafa at the Anti-Corruption Court. PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA

Summary

The pension convicts were asking the court to quash their respective sentences slapped against them by the Anti-Corruption Court in 2018

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By Anthony Wesaka

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By Juliet Kigongo

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The Court of Appeal yesterday rejected the appeal by former Public Service ministry officials who are serving different prison sentences over the Shs15.4b pension scandal.

Justices Catherine Bamugemereire, Muzamiru Kibeedi and Remmy Kasule said next month, they will give a detailed judgment on why they dismissed the appeal.

The pension convicts were asking the court to quash their respective sentences slapped against them by the Anti-Corruption Court in 2018.

The officials are Jimmy Lwamafa, former permanent secretary; and Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa, the former commissioner in-charge of compensation. The other two convicts, Christopher Obey, the former principal accountant at the same ministry and and Bob Kasango, a lawyer, have since passed on.

"Due to the unfortunate demise of appellant no.3 Christopher Obey and no. 4 Bob Kasango, the criminal appeals against the two hereby abate. We shall only make reference to them where their names happen to be part of a wider discussion subject to this appeal. We shall deliver a fully reasoned judgment on notice in the last week of August, 2021," held the Court of Appeal justices.

"The sentences of imprisonment passed against the appellants' no. 1 Jimmy Lwamafa, and appellant no. 2, Kiwanuka Kunsa by the trial court, are hereby upheld and shall be served concurrently. The orders for compensation are hereby upheld," they further ruled.

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In 2018, Justice Margaret Tibulya of the Anti-Corruption Court sentenced Lwamafa and Kunsa to nine years imprisonment each. The late Obey was given 14 years and late Kasango 16 years.

The four were found guilty of conspiring to forge a court order, a certificate of taxation and a certificate of costs directing the Attorney General to pay Kasango's then law firm of Hall & Partners, Shs15.4b, which was meant for pension and gratuity of more than 6,000 pensioners. But the four appealed against the ruling in the Court of Appeal.

The convicts had accused the trial judge of failing or omitting to properly evaluate the evidence on record, thereby arriving at a wrong decision.

They had also accused Justice Tibulya of wrongly ordering them to compensate government to a tune of Shs3.4b when Kasango, to whom the money was paid, admitted to have taken it.

But the Court of Appeal rejected these grounds and even upheld the lower court's order of compensation, meaning the remaining two convicts will jointly refund Shs3.4b to government.

The justices also faulted the trial judge  for not employing in her verdict both consecutive and concurrent sentences to the convicts, saying this would amount to confusion.

The court also upheld the orders of barring the convicts from working with the Public Service for 10 years from the date of conviction. The convicts are also serving other  jail terms after being found guilty of other offences related to the pension scam involving Shs88.2b.

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