UPPC Saga: Former Minister Esther Mbayo under Probe over Corruption

Former Minister for Presidency, Esther Mbayo is under investigation on allegations of abuse of office and corruption at Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC).

Mbayo, Luuka Woman MP was until 2021, the Minister for Presidency which directly supervised the operations of UPPC.

UPPC is a public enterprise that is fully owned and funded by Government using public funds allocated under the Government Printer Vote. The Corporation which is directly supervised by the Office of the Presidency is mandated to supply stationary and provide printing and publishing facilities to all Government Ministries and Departments.

The former Minister was on September 15 summoned to appear at CID Police Head quarters to record a statement on allegations of abuse of office, embezzlement and causing financial loss of UPPC where she was a supervisor from 2019 to 2021.

According to a source, Mbayo appeared before Acting CP Economic Crime and Financial Intelligence for a statement in respect of the said investigation.

This comes hardly a month after the new Minister for Presidency, Milly Babalanda stormed UPPC offices and ordered for the suspension of the UPPC managing director (MD), Dr Tom Wasswa, and dissolution of the board of the organization in accordance with section 6 of the UPPC Act.

“I have today officially interdicted the MD, Board, Company Secretary and Internal Auditor of UPPC to pave way for investigations into allegations of Corruption and other irregularities. In the meantime, Mr. James Tweheyo has been appointed as caretaker MD,” Babalanda tweeted on August 24^th.

A week later, Babalanda revealed how detectives at CID headquarters have recovered Shs600m as part of the Shs3bn corrupt proceeds from UPPC justifying her decision to interdict top managers of UPPC.

Esther Mbayo has been dragged into this corruption scandal being the supervisor of the Corporation. According to sources, this corruption scandal informed President Museveni’s decision to fire her from cabinet in the recent reshuffle despite winning a parliamentary seat for Luuka District.