The Secretary to Cabinet, Lucy Nakyobe has revealed that deceased Office of the Prime Minister Permanent Secretary, Keith Muhakanizi warned ministers on the looming dangers of swindling Karamoja iron sheets and none cared to listen.
“Keith had seen that circus (iron sheets saga) coming in and had even been to my office a few months before this happened. I remember one afternoon after a top management meeting, he came to my office accusing me of not inducting ministers. He came asking whether I had inducted ministers and told him I had done only that he was in Turkey. He told me the ministers were everywhere, in stores procurement, in accounts, in human resource and everywhere,”Nakyobe said.
“He said I have come to report myself that if you hear anything, know I have disagreed with ministers today. I have warned them that these stores are going to cause them problems.”
Nakyobe who also doubles as the head of public service made the remarks on Saturday during a memorial service for Muhakanizi at Kololo Independence grounds.
According to the secretary to cabinet, in the top management meeting, Muhakanizi had disagreed with the ministers who were sharing the iron sheets meant for Karamoja after he told them what they were doing was wrong.
Several senior government officials including the Vice President, Jessica Alupo, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, Minister for Karamoja, Mary Goretti Kitutu and the Finance Minister Matia Kasaija have since been implicated in the iron sheets scandal.
Ministers for Karamoja, Goretti Kitutu and Agnes Nandutu and their finance counterpart, Amos Lugoloobi have since been arraigned in courts of law over the scandal.
Several other ministers are lined up for prosecution.
Speaking on Saturday, the secretary cabinet said whereas many would ordinarily ask how the iron sheet scandal came about without Muhakanizi’s knowledge or involvement, Nakyobe insisted that he warned but ministers didn’t listen to him.
She said when the scandal came out, Muhakanizi reminded her of what he had predicted.
“When it(iron sheets scandal) came, he called me and told me didn’t I predict so? We thought it would come to pass but it continued. I told him this thing(scandal) was making government become uglier and asked him what we could do to cool it down. He just told me, I warned those ministers, let them take responsibility. He said he had already written his statement and that on return to Uganda, we would discuss the way forward but proposed for now we needed to restructure Office of the Prime Minister,”Nakyobe said.
“We agreed that when he comes back, he writes a cabinet memo proposing restructuring Office of the Prime Minister and agreed that we should let OPM concentrate on the role of coordination and supervision and the implementation role be taken elsewhere. Unfortunately, he didn’t come back to implement this.”
Nakyobe, who formerly worked as the State House comptroller asked President Museveni who was present during the memorial service to consider a person with character similar to Muhakanizi’s while appointing the next Permanent Secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister.
“I ask the president to appoint someone with courage like Keith because this office has a lot of challenges. If you appoint a soft person these challenges will continue,”Nakyobe urged.
Principled Muhakanizi
Nakyobe described Muhakanizi as a principled man with a record of service spanning 41 years since 1982 when he was first appointed as an economist and rose through the ranks to become a Permanent Secretary and Secretary to Treasury in 2013 until 2021 when he was transferred to OPM.
“He served with dedication passion and courage to speak out honestly and directly, a character rare among public servants of today. He was an asset because of his knowledge, courage, cautiousness and decisiveness. He was not afraid to confront wrongdoing and speak hard truth,” the secretary to cabinet said.
She also described Muhakanizi as one who never participated in any illegally but also principled.
“If you rushed to him and had one emergency that required funding, you would show him the emergency and would ask you if you knew the law. He would then ask if what you wanted was within the law. He would ask you to go ahead and do it but warned that if the Auditor General knocked on your door, he was not responsible.”
“Even if you came with directive from president he would require you put it in writing. He was so principled.”