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In a 6-page dossier, a whistle blower has explained to the IGG the circumstances under which some of the top management officials at Kyambogo University have potentially been breaching provisions of the Leadership Code Act and the PPPDA Act while advantaging HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd, an IT Company in which some of them have interest.
The whistle blower, whose petition has already been received by both the IGG and the State House Anti-Corruption Act, asserts that the company has been getting lucrative IT-related contracts from Kyambogo University, creating potential conflict of interest scenarios because information obtained from URSB discloses its shareholding and directorship-to the extent that some of the people who incorporated it are key decision makers at Kyambogo University.
That without being subjected to competitive bidding processes, as is required under Uganda’s public procurement laws, the company has over the years been expensively offering services related to ACMIS support, portal activation, uploading of student results and general ICT support services to the University besides undertaking numerous other assignments. And as a result, substantial amounts of public funds have been paid to the company for the provision of the above referenced services.
These transactions have been going on since the year 2024 and on 17th September 2024, the company was paid significant sums for ‘students sms subscription & ACMIS notification services’ on a bank account disclosed as 31000109124.
On the same bank account, the company was paid Shs125m on 13th December 2024, Shs280m on 12th November 2025, Shs350m on 21st August 2025, Shs250m on 21st August 2025, Shs87m on 15th May 2025 and Shs39m on 15th May 2025. The whistle blower invites the IGG to order for and examine the full bank transfers of colossal sums of money from Kyambogo University Governing Council account to the company’s.
The whistle blower calls upon the IGG to interest herself with the fact that Dr. John Okuonzi, the head of ICT Directorate at Kyambogo University which is the user department of the services the company is supposed to have rendered, is also disclosed by records at URSB to be among the directors and shareholders for HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd. Others directors include Gulu University Vice Chancellor Dr. Openjuru George Ladaah. The whistle blower calls upon the IGG to inquire into the possibility of the same curious dealings being prevalent between Gulu University and HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd.
The IGG is called upon to inquire into the possibility of officials using their positions at public universities, where they are part of top level decision making, to get lucrative ICT services provision deals for their own company. The IGG is also called upon to inquire into how Dr. Okuonzi came to have trust and confidence in dealing with a company which was only incorporated on 9th April 2024.
The whistle blower wonders how such a young company accumulated the relevant experience to qualify to get big ICT services provision-related jobs in such a short time (incorporated in April and given work as of August that same year).
The whistle blower implores the IGG to inquire into the extent to which principles of public procurement such as transparency, accountability, fairness, competition and value for money were complied with while Kyambogo University was contracting this company. The IGG is also tipped to demand for and examine the procurement plans, solicitation documents, evaluation procedures and contracts committee approvals which preceded the engaging of that same company by Kyambogo University.
Were the services provided by HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd included in the University’s procurement plans? How were the procurement requisitions initiated and by who? Had the University Council budgeted and approved for the funds that were used to procure IT services from the company? Was direct procurement method used and if yes what was the justification for that?
The IGG is also called upon to ask for copies of the bid notices to which the company responded and the best evaluated bidder notices plus the relevant contracts committee approvals. Sources close to the investigations at the IGG have intimated to this news website that the Inspectorate also intends to inquire into the circumstances under which the same procurement and contracting processes between Kyambogo University and HEMIS obtained the necessary approvals by the Solicitor General. The IGG also intends to scrutinize the actual contracting documents pertaining to all transactions relating to HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd.
The IGG is also called upon to establish the extent to which Dr. John Okuonzi, an incorporator of HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd, was involved in the procurement initiation, evaluation processes, contract approvals, budgeting & allocation of funds, the eventual contract management, certification of services delivered and approval of payments to the provider.
The IGG will also be inquiring into whether Dr. Okuonzi’s connection to the company was declared to the University Council, Contracts Committee, PDU, Auditor General and the Inspectorate of Government in his statutory declarations. The IGG is also focused on the possibility of the company’s well placed shareholders and directors coercing or manipulating their subordinates to favorably treat all HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd-related transactions while processing the procurements and effecting payments.
The whistle blower demands that the Inspectorate also ascertains the total amount of money Kyambogo University has paid to HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd since its incorporation, whether the services paid for were actually delivered, whether the payments didn’t exceed approved budgets and also if there was value for money or not.
The whistle blower also hints on the possibility that the services for which HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd was paid could have been offered by the University’s ICT personnel, already remunerated under the University structure to do that same work. That the IGG must also interest herself in establishing how HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd, a private company, got to know about Kyambogo University’s ICT requirements which in most cases is part of very sensitive privileged information only knowable to apex decision makers.
The whistle blower also discloses the key documents whose close inspection the IGG investigators should undertake and these are disclosed to include: the University’s procurement, financial, corporate, audit and banking records-in order to be able to catch the culprits properly.
Flagging possible alteration, concealment or destruction of relevant records, the whistle blower lists the University DVC F&A Prof Justus Kwetwegeka, Director ICT Okuonzi, Accounting Officer Arthur Katongole, Principal Procurement Officer Richard Muhanguzi, University Bursar Stevens Kasirye Bukulu and Gulu University’s VC Prof Openjuru George Ladaah as some of the persons of interest from whom investigators should take/record statements as part of the broader investigations.
The whistle blower petition, which is also copied to the President and the CDF General Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s office, also tips investigators on the need to quickly obtain and preserve electronic records, banking and ICT system logs in relation to all actors who have to be persons of interest to the investigators.
Knowledgeable sources say that the IG investigators, buoyed by the trust the President and Gen MK have lately exhibited in the Inspectorate, intend to escalate the inquiry into a comprehensive procurement audit, forensic financial audit, conflict of interest inquiry, verification of the impugned officials’ income/assets declarations and assessment into all funds paid to HEMIS CONSORTIUM Ltd since its incorporation barely four years ago.
Sources at the IGG, where a file is being prepared to commence the investigations, were reluctant to rule out potential recovery of improperly paid out funds and criminal prosecution should any official’s criminal culpability be established. The same petition was copied to the office of Speaker of Parliament Oboth-Oboth who intends to forward the same to Nkunyingi Muwadda’s COSASE for the appropriate consideration.
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