Inspector General of Government Irene Mulyagonja today accused the police of interfering with her investigations.

Mulyagonja appeared before the parliamentary committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to defend the IG’s Shs 37.7bn budget for the fiscal year 2015/16. She pointed an accusing finger at police when Bugweri MP Abdu Katuntu (FDC) and Busiro East MP Medard Sseggona (DP) said she only goes for the “small fish” and lets the sharks swim freely.

In response, Mulyagonja said some big people walk away because there are several parallel investigating agencies including the police.

“That conflict between the IG and the police is live [but] I would like to know which body has powers to investigate and prosecute procurement and it has got to be resolved; where do the powers of the police on investigating procurement stop and begin because the police has more resources than we have. For instance, when they were investigating the OPM [Office of the Prime Minister], they could deploy about 15 officers on one beat, but the best we can do is to get four officers,” Mulyagonja said. She also attacked the courts for downplaying the institution’s powers.

“The attitude of the court towards the Inspectorate of Government in procurement is bad. There are these small cases we have successfully investigated, but when it came to Karuma [dam project]; the issue was that we don’t have the jurisdiction to investigate the procurement cases,” she said.

“We investigated some big procurement cases like Karuma, standard gauge railway, but in the process of the investigation, it became a case in court and we could not continue…” She said what disappointed her most was the fact that former Attorney General Peter Nyombi was using the courts to fight her. Mulyagonja said whenever her office gets involved in investigations they have to be cautious about their limitations, because as the adage goes: “once bitten twice shy.”

PPDA FAULTED

Reacting to Katuntu’s inquiry about her relationship with the PPDA, Mulyagonja said that while the entity is seen as an expert in investigating procurement cases, its role is to investigate for purposes of auditing the procurements.

“… like in the case of Karuma, PPDA did its part and it went to court, but we made fresh investigations which resulted into the project stopping to restart the process,” she told MPs.

In Mukono-Katosi, she said, the first investigation was done by PPDA, but another complaint came up and the IGG investigated the project.

“So, time and resources are lost because there are two agencies investigating and when the blame is put on the table, it will be put to the IGG because it’s understood that it’s the one that can summon and investigate towards prosecution,” she said.