Corruption, Incompetence and Abuse of Power in Emyooga Program of Makindye-Ssabagabo Municipality, Wakiso District

NDEJJE DIVISION TAXI OPERATORS MYOOGA COOPERATIVE SAVINGS AND CREDIT SOCIETY LIMITED

LOCATED AT MIRIMU CELL, NDEJJE WARD, NDEJJE DIVISION, MAKINDYE-SSABAGABO MUNICIPALITY, WAKISO DISTRICT, UGANDA.

Thursday, 28th October, 2021.

To:

The Minister of State for Finance, Planning

and Economic Development (Microfinance),

MoFPED, Kampala, Uganda.

Dear Sir,

Re: Corruption, Incompetence and Abuse of Power in Emyooga Program of Makindye-Ssabagabo Municipality, Wakiso District.

"The only necessary thing for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” Edmund Burke.

Introduction

Greetings from our SACCO, Ndejje Division Taxi Operators Myooga Cooperative Savings And Credit Society Limited. Thank you for the good work you are doing for our beloved country, Uganda.

I am a member, immediate former Secretary of Loans Committee and current Secretary of Supervisory Committee of the above mentioned SACCO.

Through you, I thank H.E. the President and Cabinet for this wonderful program of Emyooga. As an active member of the SACCO and by virtue of my roles and responsibilities there, I have witnessed first-hand how this program is enabling access to affordable capital by Ugandans and I see that it has great potential to better the fortunes of our people, making them prosperous and advanced, if it is well managed.

The main purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention the fact that the Emyooga program is poorly supervised in Makindye-Ssabagabo Municipality, Wakiso District and consequently its long term effectiveness thoroughly compromised. Information available indicates that the chief culprit is the Municipal Commercial Officer, Ms. Nassuuna Doreen, whose immediate suspension from duty, investigation, prosecution and punishment I would highly recommend, for the reasons stated hereunder.

1. Corruption

Ms. Nassuuna Doreen is known to demand and take bribes from SACCOs through their leaders. For instance, she demanded for Shillings one million (Ugx 1,000,000/=) from our SACCO through the Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary, who are signatories of the SACCO bank account. She has so far taken shillings five hundred thousand (Ugx 500,000/=) and expects the balance. Evidence of this can be seen in an email I sent to her on this matter, which is attached to this letter for your perusal.

My email to Ms. Nassuuna Doreen cautioning her against soliciting and receiving bribes from SACCOs. 

After receiving the email, Ms. Nassuuna summoned our SACCO account signatories to a meeting in the municipal gardens, on Monday, 18th October, 2021, at about 1:00 p.m., the purposes of which were to devise strategies of either co-opting me in her bribery network, or else have me thrown out of the SACCO. Later, at about 2:10 p.m., she also called me to the meeting, intimidatingly questioned me on my role in the SACCO, while cleverly enticing me to endorse her avenues of corruption through inflated office expenses on items like rent in the name of accountability. I rejected her evil scheme and what ensued was execution of their earlier designed mischievous plot to expel me from the SACCO, or at least eliminate me from its leadership, in flagrant abuse of the democratic process!

2. Incompetence

Ms. Nassuuna Doreen is very incompetent in her work because she does not understand the basic tenets of the Emyooga program. This is very unfortunate because one cannot supervise or superintend over what he or she does not fully appreciate.

One cardinal requirement of the program is that, “A member must have a running enterprise or business,” in order to qualify for a loan. Shockingly, during our SACCO general meeting held on Friday, 22nd October, 2021, Ms. Nassuuna told us that being a taxi driver is a business for which a loan should be given! This was in answer to a question by a member, a taxi driver, whose loan application for a loan the Loans Committee (on which I previously served as secretary) rejected for reasons that he did not have a running business. Right now, all SACCO members take it that merely being a taxi operator is a business in itself, for which they must get loans. This is a wrong and absurd approach that will cause the SACCO to lose money to worthless activities and eventually collapse it altogether. In my opinion, being a driver or conductor is merely a job, albeit in the taxi industry, but is not a business in itself. This job should be distinguished from being an owner of a taxi; and so on which basis the owner has a running business able to apply for a loan in order to, for instance, repair or renovate the taxi, or even buy an additional one (but not a luxury car).

Further, Ms. Nassuuna Doreen is incompetent for not effectively supervising SACCO leaders in her area (Makindye-Ssabagabo Municipality), some of whom use the Emyooga funds for moneylending purposes and other irrelevant uses, hence losing money to illicit activities. But because they are her allies and protégés, giving her bribes, Ms. Nassuuna does not punish or hold them accountable, by for instance, examining their loan documentation and processes.

3. Abuse of Power

It is already self-evident that Ms. Nassuuna Doreen abuses the power and privileges of her office for personal benefit – moreover criminally! Yet her abuses do not stop there. She is so committed to and protective of her corruption network that she insults democracy by misusing elections to keep them in power and charge of SACCOs – her fatty cash cows!

When I could not be co-opted in her bribery network during the meeting of Monday, 18th October, 2021, Ms. Nassuuna and her corrupt allies embarked on mischievously getting me out of our SACCO leadership and membership altogether, through a subverted democratic exercise. After the meeting, she told us that she would come on Friday, 22nd October, 2021, at 2:00 p.m., to conduct fresh elections for all leadership positions from Chairperson to the least one and this is what we communicated to our colleagues. Soon after, I heard the Chairperson, Mr. Bright Joseph and the Secretary, Mr. Segawa Vicent (both Nassuuna protégés), saying that the Executive Committee (of which they are members) will not be dissolved. Fearing to lose elections, they went back to Ms. Nassuuna and negotiated a soft landing for themselves whereby she would secure them by simply confirming them in their positions.

Indeed, when she came that Friday, at 3:36 p.m., Secretary Segawa, playing to script, suggested that, “we confirm the existing Executive,” to which Ms. Nassuuna immediately agreed, without even putting it to a vote of the meeting, thereby denying members their power of democratic control. When I rose up to question this and reminded her that she promised the four of us that all positions were to be contested for, she said that these ones are being confirmed in order to save time! She ruled that we only elect the Loans and Supervisory committees, adding that the Loans Committee (on which I served as Secretary) will be got from “not serious or busy members of the Executive Committee.” Wow! So, why are unserious and dormant people leading others? Moreover, this approach definitely leads to a lame duck and indolent Loans Committee that is merely an appendage of the executive leadership. I advised her that it is better to keep the Loans Committee separate from the Executive Committee for, among others, reasons that it provides sufficient checks in monitoring SACCO money and prevents one group of people from being too powerful so as to oppress loan applicants. But she contemptuously ignored these concerns because the sole purpose of this whole dramatic exercise was to firmly deny me opportunity of even contesting for a position on the Loans Committee, since I was not a member of the executive.

But there were persistent voices of concern and disapproval from the audience and at this moment, she said that the Loans Committee members will leave the Executive Committee after being elected! Still there were murmurs of discontent and so she called for a vote on the matter (an opportunity she did not give members to choose whether or not to confirm her key corrupt allies on the Executive Committee). Majority were misled into voting in favor of having a Loans Committee that is part and parcel of the Executive Committee. Thereafter, the SACCO Chairperson, Mr. Bright Joseph (a Nassuuna protégé), pinpointed people of his choice to fill newly created positions on the Executive Committee, without even a vote! So, there were created positions of Youth Representative, Women Representative and Disciplinary, who automatically constituted the Loans Committee! I was happy that the latter two were taken by my former colleagues on the Committee because this saves its institutional memory and perhaps safeguards its integrity.

At the end of the day, while I was conspired against and rigged out of membership of the Loans Committee, I was elected overwhelmingly to the Supervisory Committee as its Secretary, which is an even more powerful and influential position since I am now fully empowered to inquire into anything or investigate anybody in the SACCO.

Conclusion

The Emyooga program is a noble innovation in the socio-economic welfare of Ugandans and Africans in general. It should be supported and enabled as much as possible. Yet very much of its success depends on credible and reliable personnel of high integrity to implement it.

Ms. Nassuuna Doreen (and others of her ilk) is bad news for the program. For the foregoing reasons, I would, once again, highly recommend her immediate suspension from duty, investigation, prosecution and punishment. She is unworthy of the office of Municipal Commercial Officer, Makindye-Ssabagabo Municipality – and certainly, that office deserves an occupant better than her.

Yours faithfully,

[signed]

Bakampa Brian Baryaguma

SACCO Member and Secretary of Supervisory Committee.

Mobile:  +256753124713

Email:    bakampasenior@gmail.com

c.c.: - Executive Director, Microfinance Support Center

        - Town Clerk, Makindye-Ssabagabo Municipality

My letter was served on the key authorities in the microfinance sector. I hope action will be taken against the culprits. We can defeat corruption in Uganda if we all work together, each one making a contribution in this regard.