**Uganda’s Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya and several other ministers should be prosecuted for embezzling government money, a leaked MPs’ report says.**The allegations against them centre on contracts awarded for the Commonwealth summit held in Uganda in 2007.
The 174-page draft report was given to Uganda’s two main newspapers ahead of the president’s meeting with parliament’s public accounts committee.
At the 2007 summit, Commonwealth members pledged to fight corruption.
The vice-president is alleged to have committed fraud when ordering executive limousines for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm), which he was responsible for at a cabinet level.
“Unfortunately, he refused to appear before the committee to explain his role,” Uganda’s state-run New Vision newspaper quotes the report as saying.
Elections loom
The privately owned Daily Monitor paper quotes from the report: “The chairperson of the Chogm cabinet sub-committee should be prosecuted for interference in the procurement process and causing financial loss to the tune of 9.4bn shillings ($4.4m; £3m) and be politically held responsible.”
The final report and recommendations were due to be published after Thursday’s meeting with President Yoweri Museveni, the New Vision reports.
The BBC’s Joshua Mmali in the capital, Kampala, says the report is then to go before parliament, which will decide whether to go ahead with the prosecutions.
“Our concern is that the ruling NRM [National Resistance Movement] party has the majority in parliament,” committee member MP Ssebuliba Mutumba told the BBC.
"They could try to use this to stifle the matter, to save the face of their party, because the people involved are top NRM party members.
“With elections coming soon, I am not sure if there will be motivation to debate this.”
Other ministers recommended to face corruption charges include:
• Sam Kutesa, the foreign affairs minister
• Khiddu Makubuya, the attorney general and justice minister
• Serapio Rukundo, the tourism minister
• John Byabagambi, the works minister.
General elections are due in the East African country in February 2011.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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