Whistleblower petitions IGG to investigate Minister Anite’s "secret" trip to Mauritius

A whistleblower has written to the Inspector General of Government requesting for investigations into the conduct by the Minister of State for Privatisation and Investment Evelyn Anite when she allegedly travelled to the US.

Anite recently travelled to the US for her graduation ceremony after completion of her Masters in Arts in International Relations and Diploma at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

However, according to the whistleblower who requested to remain anonymous, Anite later made a secret booking from US via France to Mauritius.

“The said trip to Mauritius was not booked in Uganda before her departure for the USA. In Mauritius, she met with the team responsible for ensuring this deal happens and they acquire UTL at a much less than the asset value estimated at $84 million,” reads in part the petition to the IGG’s office.

The whistleblower says that he finds Anite’s conduct tantamounting to influence peddling, abuse of office, corruption, and conduct unbecoming of a minister.

Demands

The whistleblower in his letter demands that the IGG investigates and verify the timing of the alleged trip to Mauritius by Anite and the earlier visit by Mauritius telecom officials to Uganda.

“The purpose of this letter is to request for an investigation into why the trip was secretly booked and not part of her initial booking to USA,” the whistleblower who chose to remain anonymous wrote to IGG.

The petitioner has also asked the Inspector General of Government to investigate Minister Evelyn Anite’s personal interests in the UTL matters and why she continued handling official duties while on leave, including writing and signing letters pertaining to UTL matters.

“All her other official matters were handled by Hon. David Bahati except for UTL in which she has personal interests. This was irregular considering she was officially on leave.”

Anite last week tweeted saying she was in the US completing her senior executive program at Havard Business School.

Uganda Telecom Limited was in May 2017 put under administration after Libyans, who owned 69% of the shares left at a time when the company had a Shs700b debt.

Early this year, government kicked out  Teleology Holdings Limited from Nigeria for failure to pay Shs268 billion within three months of being awarded the UTL deal as had been agreed by both parties.