The Anti-Corruption court has extended the arrest warrant issued against David Livingstone Ebiru, the former executive director of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS).
This is after Ebiru failed to appear for the second time to answer charges related to offering a bribe. The warrant of arrest earlier issued on August 8 was extended to September 28 by chief magistrate Joan Aciro requiring police to arrest Ebiru immediately upon sight and force him to come and be charged.
The prosecution alleges that between October 2022 and December 2022, Ebiru corruptly offered a gratification of Shs 100 million to Charles Masekuura, the chairperson of the UNBS board, in an attempt to secure his position as the executive director of UNBS. On Thursday last week, state attorney from the IGG’s office, Rogers Kinobe informed court that there is a warrant of arrest that was issued against Ebiru and it has not been executed because the accused person is evasive and still in hiding.
“I pray for extension of the warrant and they keep further tracing him. Unfortunately your worship, he is always represented – meaning he is aware of all the processes in court. Let the court hear from his lawyer who was present when the warrant was issued and is also present here today because court orders can’t be in vain,” said Kinobe.
Ebiru’s lawyer Silas Mugabi Kahima informed court that on August 11, they filed three applications under the Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2019 challenging the entire process and manner in which criminal proceedings were instituted against their client. He said, unfortunately, the applications have not been fixed for hearing because they were allocated before lady justice Margaret Tibulya who is currently on leave.
He said, they have since sought the indulgence of court to have the applications allocated to another judge, but there hasn’t been feedback. Mugabi added that they have also since filed an application for revision of the decision of this court to issue a warrant of arrest against Ebiru.
Court heard that Ebiru’s lawyer is awaiting to get the record from the lower court and intends to serve the prosecution with the application for revision. Mugabi asked court to stay the trial pending the decision. But prosecution insisted that a stay of proceedings can’t be granted without an order to the same effect.
“Most importantly the accused has not taken any positive step such as taking plea to gain capacity to challenge what is taking place in court. So you can’t challenge your prosecution before you are even charged, we thus reiterate that the warrant issued be renewed to compel his attendance so that he gets capacity to challenge the proceedings otherwise his character has exhibited the highest disrespect of this court in the absence of any order varying the order of this honourable court,” said Kinobe.
In her ruling, the chief magistrate agreed with the prosecution that there was no merit or reason substantive to stay the proceedings and accordingly extended the warrant of arrest. The minister of Trade, Industries, and Cooperatives placed Ebiru on a six-month forced leave amid allegations of fraud and misconduct.
He is accused of orchestrating an unauthorized expenditure of Shs 12.5 billion as highlighted in the Auditor General report for FY 2021/2022 on UNBS’s financial statements. This came to light during an inquiry initiated by parliament’s public accounts committee on commissions, statutory authorities, and state enterprises (PAC-COSASE), chaired by Joel Ssenyonyi.
The investigation revealed that Ebiru directed the transfer of the funds in question from the Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) suppliers’ account to a Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) account, a program under UNBS designated to receive donor funds.
During the inquiry, Charles Musekuura, the chairperson of the UNBS board, disclosed that out of the Shs 17.964 billion in the GAIN account, Ebiru only authorized Shs 5.499 billion to be remitted to the consolidated fund. The remaining Shs 12.464 billion was repurposed in line with Ebiru’s directives to support the bureau’s operations.
Ebiru acknowledged that his actions contradicted the Public Finance Management Act of 2014 but justified them by citing the bureau’s essential obligations following a budget reduction of Shs 20 billion during the revised fiscal year.
Both the Inspectorate of Government and the UNBS board issued letters suspending Ebiru from office on June 26 and 27 respectively, to allow for investigations into the malpractice. Ebiru admitted to bribing the UNBS board with Shs 100 million to evade suspension, a sum he allegedly borrowed.
Source: URN