NAADS INVESTIGATES LT.COL PADDY ANKUNDA, TWO OTHERS OVER INFLATED TEA SEEDLINGS SUPPLIES

By our reporter

www.mknewslink.com

In Kikuube

The National Agricultural Advisory Services-NAADS through an independent team from secretariat is investigating claims for Shs 540M in inflated supplies of tea seedlings by Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda and two other suppliers in three sub counties in Buhaguzi County Kikuube district.

This is after anomalies in the claims by three suppliers were detected in Kiziranfumbi, Kabwoya and Bugambe.

In 2018, NAADS secretariat allocated funds for procurement of 1.200.000 tea seedlings worth Shs.540M for farmers in Buhaguzi County during 2018/19 financial year under a delegated procurement arrangement to Hoima district local government since Kikuube had just started.

The district contracted three suppliers; Patience Claire Kiruhira, Z-Plus limited, and Paddy Ankunda trade links, each supplying 400,000 tea seedlings worth 180,000,000.

However, according to the letter dated 4^th June 2020 written by Dr. Christopher Bukenya, the executive director NAADS, there were inflated numbers of seedlings supplied on top of ghost gardens as it was revealed in a report that was written by Catherine Kaija, the Hoima district Agriculture officer-DAO

Richard Tabaro, the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner says the team is already on ground and issues to be addressed include how the procurement process was done and how the amount of tea seedlings per farmer had been arrived at.

This is not the first probe as most tea nursery bed operators connive with some government officials to defraud the government huge amounts of money like the probe in the Kigezi region.

www.mknewslink.com a greater western Uganda news website
Email: wmuhwezi75@gmail.com
Tel: +256702680106