“Birigimana can come but Kagole must answer for his actions,…what we want is accountability ” -Nandala Mafabi
Hon. Nandala Mafabi the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) has welcomed the sacking of former PS for the judiciary Mr. Kagole Kivumbi, but also vowed that investigations into the alleged misappropriation of public funds in the judiciary will continue and prove what PAC had earlier discovered when they recommended that Kagole should be sacked.
In an exclusive interview with this website, Nandala Mafabi said that Kagole’s sacking was long overdue because PAC had earlier recommended that Kagole should be sacked but the executive ignored their call.
He however said the move by the executive to sack Kagole is not enough, and vowed that investigations by PAC into Kagole’s conduct while in office will proceed up to a logical conclusion.
“The executive should have acted long ago on Kagole. There is clear evidence the man was stealing public funds through fictitious accounting. It is long overdue. When PAC became serious and insisted that we shall not allow Kagole to stay in office, that’s when they acted but our investigations have to proceed so that we show everyone what we have been talking about in the committee” said Nandala Mafabi.
He also said the misappropriated funds under Kagole Kivumbi could be much more that the 34bn indicated in the Auditor General’s report.
“Birigimana can come but Kagole must answer for his actions, for us what we want to achieve is to ensure that accountability is observed and we shall enforce it to the latter” Mafabi adds.
Mr. Kagole Kivumbi was sacked yesterday from the office of the PS of the judiciary, and replaced by Mr. Pius Bigirimana formerly the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
Nandala Mafabi says that article 164 of the Constitution compels public officers to answer for their actions whether they are still in office, or if they have already left office and therefore, his sacking cannot stop the investigations of the committee into his actions while in office.
PAC under the chairmanship of Hon. Nandala Mafabi has been probing the alleged misappropriation of 34billion Shillings as highlighted in the Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2017/2018.
Kagole’s woes started after a whistle-blower rose a petition on suspected collusion to embezzle 34 billion shillings from the judiciary prompting a probe into the account books which implicated him.