It is a guilty verdict for former permanent secretary at the public service ministry and his counterparts Christopher Obey the former principal accountant in the pensions department, Stephen Kiwanuka Kunsa the former director research and development as well as Bob Kasango, a city lawyer.
These are accused of theft. They have been convicted of conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to commit a felony and forgery of a document, after prosecution proved to court beyond reasonable doubt that the accused persons forged a court order, a certificate of taxatiob, a certificate of costs directing the Attorney General to pay Hall and partners money that was originally meant for pension and gratuity of more than 693,000 pensioners.
Justice Tibulya rejected a plea by Obey and Kunsa that they signed documents leading to the diversion of the money without properly reading through the documents. However, the judge said they were seniors who should have nor committed such an error.
Earlier, court accessors including Nelson Kamanzi and Flavia Kisaakye had asked court to acquit the accused basing on failure by witnesses to put up convincing testomies. The judge however disagreed, indicating that the unbinding opinion by court assessors is far way below the weight of diversion of public funds.
