The office of the Inspector General of Government (IGG) defends the decision to withdraw charges against David Livingstone Ebiru, the former Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) Executive Director, saying that the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE) only provided proceedings of the committee without accompanying it with evidence of the Board Members soliciting the said bribe, which made it hard for the IGG to sustain bribery charges against Ebiru in court.
According to Patricia Achan, the Deputy IGG, in response to criticism of removing the charges without providing explanations, the IGG does not owe the public an explanation under the Inspectorate of Government Act. The IG office was unable to obtain more evidence offered by COSASE.
Achan made these remarks during the media interview at Parliament on Tuesday, October 31, 2023.
She said that, as an Inspectorate, they didn’t have evidence to pin Ebiru on corruption-related cases because he simply talked, yet merely confessing to giving a bribe needs additional evidence to collaborate his statements because the standard of proof is so high, adding that, the IG office wasn’t able to gather enough evidence to ascertain those charges in court.
“In law, we don’t go to court with hearsay. We attempted to do investigations but it didn’t lead us anywhere, so we just found it wise that we withdraw that case against Ebiru. There was need for the IG to prove to court that someone asked for that bribe and cases of corruption take place between two parties, that is; the giver and taker of the bribe,” Achan said.
She noted that, the decision was taken under the law, and they don’t have any mandate or obligation to explain the reasons why they take certain decisions, adding that, but this particular case had raised a lot of controversy, so it is important to explain why.
The Deputy IGG further said that, if the Minister of Trade fails to prove the case against Ebiru, he will be back in his office because allegations against him won’t have been ascertained.
The IGG’s response follows the Chairperson of COSASE, Joel Ssenyonyi’s controversial statements at the IGG’s decision to withdraw corruption charges against the former UNBS Boss, David Livingstone Ebiru despite furnishing government with overwhelming evidence of Ebiru confessing to paying bribe of Shs100M to have his contract extended.
