Railway officials in court over $500,000 corruption allegations

 
Two top officials of Reli Assets Holding Company (RAHCO) and a local businessman yesterday appeared before the Kisutu resident magistrate’s court to answer charges of abuse of office and occasioning a loss of $527,540 (over 1billion/-) to the government.

 

The prosecution team comprising principal state attorney Timon Vitalis and two officials from the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) named the accused as Benhardard Tito, RAHCO’s former managing director, and company secretary Emmanuel Massawe.

 

The third accused person is Kanji Muhando a businessman and representative of Rothschild (South Africa), Proprietary Ltd.

Tito is accused of intentionally abusing his position as MD by choosing Rothschild (South Africa), Proprietary Ltd as transaction advisor for a project to upgrade the central line corridor railway without approval of the RAHCO tender board.

 

He and Massawe are further accused of appointing the same company to provide financial advisory services relating to upgrading the project from a meter gauge to a standard gauge project without board approval.

 

They allegedly failed to submit a contract for consultancy services between Rothschild and RAHCO to the attorney general for proper vetting before signing it, which was a violation of the Public Procurement Act.

 

It is further alleged that Rothschild received $527,540 as advance payment and bank transfer charges for consultancy services which were never rendered.

 

Tito also allegedly awarded a $2.3 million contract for the construction of 2 kilometres of standard gauge railway at Soga to the China Railway Construction Corporation without prior approval of RAHCO’S tender board. 

 

The accused were not allowed to enter any plea before the court because the matter they are charged with is normally heard by the High Court, or when the Director of Public Prosecutions issues a certificate for the court to conduct the case.

 

The case was adjourned until March 18, this year when it will come up for ruling if the accused will be granting bail or not.