Departure and/or Resignation from Ndejje Division Taxi Operators Myooga SACCO

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.

TELEPHONE NO.: 0752427792, 0705397695, 0703520549

Friday, 19^th November, 2021.

To:

The Town Clerk,

Makindye Ssabagabo Municipal Council,

Dear Sir / Madam,

Re: Departure and/or Resignation from Ndejje Division Taxi Operators Myooga SACCO

“Sensible people will see trouble coming and avoid it, but a foolish person will walk right into it and regret it later,” Proverbs 22:3.

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.

I am very grateful 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 purpose of this letter is to inform you and those copied herein that after careful consideration, I have decided to leave the SACCO, resign my leadership position from it and to bring to your attention the fact that our SACCO is poorly run due to gross internal leadership weaknesses and contradictions, but also unhealthy external influences, whose involvement in SACCO affairs fans conflicts and causes illegalities. The weaknesses, contradictions and unhealthy external influences manifest in various forms like corruption, profiteering, abuse of power and incompetence. I make this alarm to save my personal reputation, ensure my personal safety and invite appropriate external intervention to streamline the SACCO’s activities to save it from looming disaster, hence saving taxpayers’ money.

1.                  Corruption

The SACCO is led by utterly corrupt people. The signatories of its bank account are Mr. Bright Joseph (Chairperson), Ms. Mbabazi Annet (Treasurer) and Mr. Segawa Vicent (Secretary), who have so far taken out of the SACCO account shillings five hundred thousand (Ugx 500,000/=) and still expect to take more shillings five hundred thousand (Ugx 500,000/=), hence making a total of shillings one million (Ugx 1,000,000/=), which money is not spent on SACCO programs. They say that the money was (and will be) given to the Municipal Commercial Officer, Ms. Nassuuna Doreen, in appreciation for helping to set up the SACCO. Of recent there is another reason: that it is to induce her to write a favorable report so that the SACCO benefits from a promise of shillings twenty million (Shs. 20,000,000/=) to well performing SACCOs, allegedly made by Hon. Haruna Kasolo Kyeyune. I previously opposed this idea of bribery, warned our leaders against it and also cautioned Ms. Nassuuna against taking the money. Evidence of this can be seen in an email I sent to her on this matter, which is [quoted in] this letter for your perusal.

Hello, Madam Nassuuna Doreen. Good morning.

I hope you are well.

I come to you with career saving information in form of a warning to you and the RDC of Wakiso, cautioning you against asking and/or taking bribes from SaCCOs and their leaders in your area of operation.

Mr. Bright Joseph, the Chairperson of Ndejje Taxi Operators Myooga SaCCO, told us in our general meeting that you and the RDC asked the SaCCO to give you Uganda shillings one million (Ugx 1,000,000/=) from the SaCCO's seed capital. He added that he has so far given you Shs five hundred thousand (Ugx 500,000/=) got from the first SaCCO withdraw and that the remaining balance is to be deducted from the recently approved third withdraw.

As you are aware, this matter of leaders like you and the RDC soliciting for bribes from Emyooga programs has come to the attention of even H.E. the President and during his previous national address, he warned against this vice, promising to punish those involved in it.

You and the RDC have been identified as people promoting corruption in this Emyooga program. I therefore warn you strongly against further engaging in such corrupt tendencies. As you are well aware, this is a crime for which you will be arrested, interdicted, tried, convicted, imprisoned and dismissed from the public service of Uganda with disgrace. I know you are hardworking officers and cadres; please, don't let your careers be ruined over small things.

I passed similar warning yesterday to the signatories of Ndejje Taxi Operators Myooga SaCCO - Mr. Bright Joseph (Chairperson), Ms. Mbabazi Annet (Treasurer) and Mr. Segawa Vicent (Secretary) - advising them against giving you the remaining balance of Shillings five hundred thousand (Ugx 500,000/=), but they remained committed to giving you the money, seemingly afraid of offending you. I warned them that they (the givers / conveyors) and you plus RDC (the recipients) will all be held liable for engaging in corruption.

The same warning has now been passed to you as well. Please, take heed. Don't blame anyone for consequences that may follow if you ignore this caution.

Best regards,

B.B. Bakampa.

After receiving the email, Ms. Nassuuna Doreen summoned our SACCO account signatories to a meeting in the municipal gardens, on Monday, 18^th October, 2021, at about 1:00 p.m., the purposes of which were to devise strategies of either co-opting me in their 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 their avenues of corruption through inflated office expenses on items like rent in the name of accountability. I rejected their 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.                  Profiteering

Two of our SACCO leaders have excelled at devising schemes of enriching themselves using SACCO money namely, Mr. Bright Joseph (Chairperson) and Ms. Mbabazi Annet (Treasurer). This all-powerful duo has an unholy alliance of making financial arrangements for themselves, which they later ‘throw’ at other leaders to approve or endorse in meetings that are usually called long after the issue at hand has occurred. Without much choice, other leaders pass their schemes, really out of fear of offending them or for the sake of peace, harmony and avoiding quarrels. Below are some examples.

First, Mr. Bright Joseph had stolen shillings one million, two hundred thousand (Shs. 1,200,000/=) from the SACCO soon after making our first withdraw, disguising it as a loan. It was given to him by Ms. Mbabazi Annet, in exchange for giving her money to plaster her room that she would later rent to the SACCO. When this came to our attention, fellow SACCO leaders led by me, condemned and opposed this theft and forced Mr. Bright Joseph to take the money as a loan, for which a file was made for him. He requested some more money and we gave it to him, mainly out of respect for him as our leader, considering his financial needs. Meanwhile, the SACCO had already established itself in Ms. Mbabazi’s unfinished room, without electricity, no cemented floor, etc., at a fee of shillings one hundred thousand (Shs, 100,000/=) per month. We couldn’t save much since money worth four months of rent was already paid out to her without our consent. So, we grudgingly accepted the illicit deal and moved on.

Second, more recently (about early this month), Mr. Bright Joseph and Ms. Mbabazi Annet, struck another deal allowing her to bring her daughter, a young teenage mother, to work in the SACCO as an office administrator, for which the SACCO pays a monthly salary of shillings one hundred and fifty thousand (Shs. 150,000/=). No due process was followed like interviews as was done with the first employee. Knowledge of computer applications was set as a prerequisite for this position since the SACCO will get a computer anytime soon, but from the way I see this young girl, I doubt she can even type a sentence in a computer! The appointment was just announced to us, fellow leaders, on Wednesday, 17^th November, 2021, in line with their usual practice of ‘throwing’ things at others. Well, as usual, we ignored the matter since not much could be done without setting off a quarrel and causing bad-blood among us. In exchange, the SACCO was to shift, rent a double room house, occupy the front room and Mr. Bright Joseph occupies the back room! Unfortunately for him, circumstances arose that forced a meeting of leaders before the deal materialized and eventually it couldn’t go throw as planned. The SACCO was slated to lose rent of December and half of November at Ms. Mbabazi’s premises. That’s how absurd the situation is in this SACCO with its present leadership.

Third, these leaders have now hijacked and literally confiscated my property i.e. an office table and its chair that I had lent to the SACCO until it was able to buy its own properties. They have failed to develop the SACCO by getting for it its own items, clearly because they see that there are ‘free’ things available there. The SACCO has not even bought an office rubbish can, as requested by the previous office administrator and which some of us have repeatedly talked about! Our leaders just want to steal money instead of using it for legitimate office work. After deciding to leave the SACCO, having seen that its state of affairs is beyond repair (unless with total overhaul), I demanded to take away my property which the leaders have refused to give to me. I request you and all those copied in this letter to use your good offices and help me recover my property and saving from these sadly greedy and thieving people. For now, I put them in the personal care and responsibility of Ms. Mbabazi Annet, who is our landlady, treasurer and whose daughter is office administrator seated in the office every day.

3.                  Abuse of power

It is already self-evident that our leaders, especially Mr. Bright Joseph (Chairperson) and Ms. Mbabazi Annet (Treasurer) abuse the powers and privileges of their offices for personal benefit – moreover criminally! Yet their abuses do not stop there. In doing this – quite regrettably – they are urged on and supported by the Municipal Commercial Officer, Ms. Nassuuna Doreen! 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! Consider, for instance, a recent scenario in our SACCO.

When I could not be co-opted in their bribery network during the meeting of Monday, 18^th October, 2021, Ms. Nassuuna Doreen and her corrupt allies embarked on mischievously getting me out of our SACCO’s leadership and membership altogether, through a subverted democratic exercise. After the meeting, she told us that she would come on Friday, 22^nd 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, said, “I request 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 remind her that she promised the four of us who met her earlier 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 other 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 Committee.

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.

4.                  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, 22^nd 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 taxi 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).

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. Going forward, therefore, I would make the following proposals:

1.   I would highly recommend the immediate suspension from duty of Mr. Bright Joseph (Chairperson), Ms. Mbabazi Annet (Treasurer) and Mr. Segawa Vicent (Secretary). If they should stay on, they should be subjected to free and fair elections, which the SACCO has never enjoyed, in accordance with members’ democratic control.

2.   I would highly recommend the immediate interdiction and suspension from duty of Ms. Nassuuna Doreen.

3.   I would highly recommend investigation and prosecution of Ms. Nassuuna Doreen, Mr. BrightJoseph, Ms. Mbabazi Annet and Mr. Segawa Vicent for corruption and other crimes.

4.      I would highly recommend an in-depth audit of the SACCO’s books of account.

Lastly, allow me inform you that given all the developments stated above and some others that have been left out for lack of space, nowadays I live in fear for my life, worried that terrible harm could be done to me like pouring acid on me, hiring goons to beat me up, knocking me dead, etc. I have already informed my fellow members in the SACCO of these fears. Pray for me.

Yours faithfully,

 [signed]

Bakampa Brian Baryaguma

Outgoing SACCO Member and Secretary - Supervisory Committee

Mobile:          +256753124713

Email:             bakampasenior@gmail.com

 

 

c.c.:     - Chairperson, Ndejje Division Taxi Operators Myooga SACCO

            - Chairperson, Mirimu L.C. 1 Zone

- O.C., Mirimu Police Post

This letter was duly served on the Town Clerk and SACCO Chairperson, as evidenced by their stamps. The area L.C. I chairperson and O.C., Police Post were also served with copies of the same.