UPDF Recalls Aircraft Scandal Officers

By BENON HERBERT OLUKA

A Uganda Peoples defense Forces military helicopter at the Entebe Airport.

Kampala, Uganda, December 25, 2006 – Three years after receiving two separate reports implicating nearly the same set of Uganda People’s Defense Forces officers in the mismanagement of military aviation equipment and theft of aircraft parts from Uganda’s military air force headquarters, the army has reinstated the alleged offenders, who have now resumed their duties.

According to information made available to The EastAfrican, the UPDF leadership has arbitrarily lifted the suspensions of all the five army officers implicated in the scandal and recalled them to the air force headquarters at the old Entebbe international airport.

Most of the suspended officers officially reported back to the headquarters on November 13, according to sources at the UPDF.

“The suspended officers were told to report back to headquarters. It seems the leadership has decided that they have no case to answer,” a military source commented.

The order lifting the officers’ suspensions and recalling them to the air force headquarters was issued by Maj-Gen Jim Oweyesigire, the Commander of the UPDF Air Force.

Maj-Gen Oweyesigire confirmed to The EastAfrican last week that he had indeed ordered the return of the suspended officers. He said he had done it out of concern for the safety and welfare of the officers who had been on suspension.

“When I took over, I asked: ‘Where are these people? What are they doing now? Why are they not reporting? I said let them come and start reporting,” Maj-Gen Oweyesigire said.

Maj-Gen Oweyesigire named the officers he recalled as Maj Joseph Musoke and Capt Amos Mukiibi. He added that he did not recall all the implicated officers, naming Lt-Col Livingstone Kalyesubula as one of those still on suspension.

Lt-Col Kalyesubula, according to Maj-Gen Oweyesigire, reports to the Chieftaincy of Personnel and Administration (CPA), which is based at the UPDF general headquarters in Bombo.  

Asked whether the lifting of the suspensions meant that the officers no longer had a case to answer, Maj-Gen Oweyesigire said: “That is another matter. You ask the people who compiled those reports; they are the ones who know about the cases. Me, I don’t know. At that time [when the inquiries were conducted and the reports written], I was on a course.”

The investigation of circumstances under which aircraft spare parts and other components disappeared from Entebbe Airbase was instituted by the then Commander of the UPDF Air Force.

Both reports were submitted to the office of the UPDF Army Commander — now known as Chief of Defense Forces (CDF).

In a telephone interview with The EastAfrican, the CDF, Gen Aronda Nyakairima, declined to comment when asked whether the army leadership had taken a formal decision not to prosecute the alleged offenders.

Gen Aronda instead referred The EastAfrican to army spokesman Maj Felix Kulayigye, saying: “If there is anything he cannot answer, he will contact me.”

Maj Kulayigye on his part told The EastAfrican: “I don’t have the legal background on those cases, and unfortunately the Chief of Legal Services is in Juba as a member of the government’s peace negotiations team.”  

The army spokesman promised to consult senior officers more knowledgeable on the matter before giving the army’s position on the matter, but had not done so by the time of going to press.

The army first commissioned an internal inquiry into mismanagement in the UPDF Air Force in 2002; the enquiry was conducted by a 10-member board that produced its report in October 2002.

This probe was chaired by Lt-Col Levy Mugyenyi. The members of Lt-Col Mugyenyi’s team were Lt-Col (now Brig) Sam Turyagyenda, Capt Kasaija Ateenyi, Capt Nathan Begumisa, Capt Andrew Muchwa, Lt Moses Buwaso, Sgt Rwenzigye Robert, Sgt Francis Asiimwe and Pte Fulgentius Ntezimana.

The report exposed instances where army officers pronounced still efficient aircraft parts as faulty or due to be taken for overhaul in order to transport them out of the Entebbe Airbase, after which they would sell them.

However, the investigators failed to establish the exact number of aircraft parts stolen as the army airbase had not kept count of which aviation machinery was in its possession, which had been taken away for overhaul and repair and which had been returned after service.

The first report made nine recommendations, among them that all appointments in the UPDF Airbase be formally made by the army’s Chieftaincy of Personnel and Administration (CPA). It was, however, silent on the kind of action that the army institution should take against the officers who where suspended.

The report did observe that there was total negligence and mismanagement of stores — hence some officers could have taken advantage of this negligence.

This report also called on the UPDF leadership to clearly spell out the role of the Chief Engineer and that of the Air Logistics Officer in order to avoid power overlaps; to set up a committee to condemn spare parts instead of leaving this duty to a single individual; and to come up with an inventory of all departments, all spare parts and all components abroad and loaned out.

But five months after the first report was submitted, the army leadership set up another board of inquiry this time composed mainly of officers from outside the unit under probe. The second probe was chaired by Col Arthur Musinguzi.

To date however, the recommendations made by the first and second probes have yet to be followed up in their entirety, according to our sources, with many of the issues having been swept under the carpet altogether.

Neither report attempted to ascertain the total value of the items that were stolen from the UPDF Air Force. Conservative estimates, however, put the losses in excess of $5 million, with three rescue hoists valued at $1.3 million, an assortment of aircraft engines, propellers, radio trans-receivers, gearboxes and spindles said to be among the items gone missing.

Uganda ’s army has over the years been rocked by a series of corruption scandals, to many of which the leadership has either deliberately or inadvertently turned a blind eye.

Army financial mismanagement, fraudulent procurement and other corruption scandals have cost Uganda at least $500 million since President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA) rebels assumed power in January 1986.

The most prominent scandal has been that of senior army officers inflating UPDF payrolls with non-existent soldiers, known in Uganda as “ghost soldiers.”

A report from a 2003 army High Command inquiry into the ghost soldiers scandal revealed that the army had lost some $324 million in the past 20 years.

Following the release of this report, President Museveni suspended 28 senior officers from the army, including former army commander Maj-Gen James Kazini and former army chief of staff Brig Nakibus Lakara.  

The officers were later charged at the Army’s General Court Martial with, among other cases, causing financial loss to the military by inflating the army payroll with non-existent soldiers.  

However, some of the officers have since been cleared and promoted from their previous ranks, among them the then Col Andrew Gutti, who was promoted to the rank of Brigadier and later appointed the Deputy Commandant of the UPDF Senior Command and Staff College in Kimaka.

Source: The EastAfrican

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