Kampala, Uganda: The Anti-Corruption Court in Kampala has convicted and sentenced former Principal Assistant Secretary at the Ministry of Lands, Lira Zonal Office, Mr Ateng Francis, to three years in prison on 11 counts of abuse of office, fraudulent procurement of a certificate of title, forgery, uttering false documents and conspiracy to commit a felony.
According to court records, Ateng committed the offences in January 2018 while serving at the Lands Zonal Office in Lira.
Together with accomplices, he abused his position with intent to defraud Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) of its land by facilitating the irregular issuance of a special certificate of title and arranging the illegal separation and allocation of the land.
Ateng further identified brokers and sold the land to private individuals without following government procedures for disposing of public property. The group also forged the signature of the then URC Managing Director and used it to utter false documents to effect the transfers and sales.
One of his co-accused, Ocen Joseph, earlier pleaded guilty and is currently serving a two-year custodial sentence on the same charges.
The prosecution stemmed from a 2022 Presidential Directive instructing the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, working with the Criminal Investigations Directorate and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, to investigate corruption within Uganda Railways Corporation and bring to book all individuals involved in the fraudulent takeover of URC land.
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