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More corruption has been exposed at the under-fire Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), with sources saying managers of Bwindi-Mgahinga conservation in Kisoro district may have stolen millions of shillings donated by an American charity, Pilgrim Africa.
It has also emerged that nearly half a billion shillings may also have been lost to ghost purchases of items for which there is no official record of delivery.
In mid-2020, a US charity organization, Pilgrim Africa, offered the authority $100,000 (Shs374 million) to support rangers and operational activities in the Bwindi-Mgahinga conservation area during the Covid-19 lockdown months.
But there are credible suspicions now that this money mysteriously disappeared down an accounting dark hole, with some of the intended beneficiaries saying they never received a cent.
Adding to the mystery, Monitor has learnt that some park managers have since claimed that the donation money was used to cover running costs during the pandemic crisis, and yet these costs are already included in the conservation area’s official budget.
Our sources revealed that on top of this confusion, attempts to verify the running costs’ claim turned up the troubling fact that there is no documentary proof that items allegedly bought with the money were actually delivered.
The conservation area situated on the Virunga Mountain ranges which straddle Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda is home to more than half of the world’s endangered mountain gorilla population.
Bwindi-Mgahinga national parks also provide a habitat for large chimpanzee populations, are a famous birding destination and were named a UNESCO-protected World Heritage site in 1994 because of their ecological and cultural significance.
Already under the spotlight after an internal audit exposed corrupt insider dealings in which top-level staff allegedly colluded with tour operators to defraud government of billions — through the recycling of gorilla tracking permits and tampering with official receipts — the apparent donation scandal marks a new low for the troubled UWA.
The authority acknowledges receiving the money from Pilgrim Africa in a July 17, 2020, post on its Facebook account.“Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has received funds worth $100,000 from Pilgrim Africa to support rangers in Bwindi-Mgahinga conservation area for a period of 10 months.
The funds will be used to support the rangers’ salaries and operational activities of the conservation area in order to carry out routine patrols as well as monitor the health of the gorillas,” the post reported.
According to the UWA post, a cheque in that amount was handed over to the authority’s executive director, Mr Sam Mwandha on July 17, 2020, by Dr Ben Khingi, board chairman of Pilgrim Africa.
The handover took place at UWA head office in Kampala during a function also attended by Lt Gen Charles Angina, the charity’s patron.
While several staff who were interviewed in the conservation area said they did not receive their share of the donation, a copy of internal records provided by our sources indicates that the names of three field staff were recorded against Shs10.5 million in patrol allowances.
However, the said staff, including Mr Movadi Turyatemba, a law enforcement officer and head rangers; Rauben Mwesigwa and Deusdedit Tuguisirize deny receiving an allowance purportedly drawn from the donated funds between August 2020 and May 2021. “Maybe others received, but for me, I have never received that money, so I don’t know what they did with the money,” one source said.
To date, there is no explanation from UWA, with Mr Mwandha not answering telephone calls. UWA spokesman Bashir Hangi on Monday refused to respond to requests for comment, saying this matter is now the subject of a police investigation.
Amid the mystery, affected staff (names withheld) wistfully recall that the donation was supposed to be a welfare-support payment in appreciation of their dedication to keeping the country’s prized gorilla tourist attraction safe when Covid-19 shut tourism down.
Against the same backdrop, Mr Nelson Guma, the chief warden in the area, yesterday said he does not understand where the questions are coming from, which is strange. Sources say he should know because after UWA’s bosses received the cheque, the donation money was wired to the conservation area for onward release to the rangers sometime between July and August 2020.
“What are you talking about? I don’t have any idea. Was it a report, a complaint or what exactly was it? Is it an internal document or an investigation? If it is an internal document given to the executive director or any other person, they will call me and I will explain myself, otherwise right now I don’t know where to start responding from,” he said.
Monitor has seen other documents showing that during the same Covid-19 lockdown, Shs313.3 million was released to pay for assorted services in the Bwindi-Mgahinga conservation area, but there is no evidence any of the services were delivered.
According to the documents, park management bought food items worth Shs60 million; first aid and immunity booster drugs at Shs24.8 million and spent Shs71.9 million on fuel.
Additionally, airtime worth almost Shs11.3 million was supposedly bought for field staff; Shs129.5 million was spent on field equipment while Shs16 million reportedly covered Internet costs.
Sources in the accounts and audit department say these procurements were not backed by documentary or other evidence of purchase and delivery.
It is reported that fuel worth Shs71.9 million was bought from Total Energies under the Chief Warden, Mr Nelson Guma, between May 2021 and September 2022.
Our sources say internal records at the park indicate a breakdown of the fuel expenditure as follows: Shs6.4 million was used in September 2020, Shs8.9 million in October 2020 and Shs14.1 in November 2020.In December 2020, Shs7 million went to fuel; while in January 2021, Shs16.6 million was released for the same puropose. Months later in March and May 2021, Shs8.1 million and Shs10.8 million was spent, respectively.
For the airtime, the availed list shows that two staff members; Movadi Turyatemba, a law enforcement officer, and Deusdedit Tuguisirize, the head ranger in Bwindi, reportedly received airtime worth slightly under Shs11.3 million.
Mr Tuguisirize allegedly received Shs2.5 million worth of airtime in December 2020. The remaining Shs9 million was attributed to Mr Turyatemba in equal monthly releases of Shs1,250,000 over seven months between August 2020 and May 2021, excluding November, December and April. While we were unable to reach Mr Turyatemba, Mr Tuguisirize told Monitor on Tuesday that he only files requests for staff airtime.
“To be honest I have never received such an amount of money for airtime,” he said, adding, “What I always did was to request for the airtime and after that, the people who were supposed to provide the airtime would send it directly to the beneficiaries.”
“That money never came to me, so I don’t know how much each received and whether they received it or not. But from my assessment, they must have received it because no one complained to me about it,” he said.
Investigations into the unravelling, many-sided UWA cash scandal continue.
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