Whistle blowers from the National Water and Sewerage Corporation have penned a dossier to the Inspector General of Government asking for a probe into the Executive Director Public Procurement and Disposal of assets Authority (PPDA), Benson Turamye and the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) boss Dr Silver Mugisha claiming the two were allegedly involved in blocking an investigation into a dubious procurement deal where NWSC procured prepaid meters with functionality issues at a cost of Shs17 billion.
According to the whistle blowers, Turamye’s wife, Ruth Kembabazi who was recruited as a Senior Internal Auditor at NWSC in 2018 also benefitted with a promotion to Senior Compliance Officer in September 2020, a promotion was that came with a big salary increment. Aggrieved staff say she was promoted in under two years yet many had stagnated in the same position for over five years because her husband had played a part in blocking the prepaid metres’ probe.
While Turamye is yet to speak on the allegations, NWSC’s Mugisha has responded to the matter admitting that the water body procured prepaid meters for government institutions eight years ago, but they developed “functionality challenges within two years of operation.”
“NWSC took administrative measures with the supplier to mitigate any financial loss to the corporation. This involved withholding equivalent payments to the supplier and cashing performance security,” he said.
Mugisha says that PPDA carried out a comprehensive performance audit on the matter, in accordance with the law. Without giving details, Mugisha says; “The PPDA report returned a raft of measures and recommendations that NWSC management and Board, have since acted on fully.”
He adds that similar “allegations” were brought before the 10th Parliament and NWSC gave their side of the story. Mugisha says that NWSC is currently developing its own prepaid meter technology based on experiences the water body had with the prepaid meters.
He however did not comment on the issue of fast tracking Turamye’s wife’s rise within NWSC.