Among the long-serving people whose integrity has been tested and proved beyond boundaries by President Museveni is H.E. Elizabeth Paula Napeyok, the current Ambassador representing Uganda in Rome.
With all her tireless efforts to market Uganda since she became ambassador in 1986, now some corrupt officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are trying all they can to bring her down through blackmailing her.
On the 6th of June this year, a clique of technical technocrats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) launched a blackmailing war against Ambassador Napeyok with the aim of making the President, who is also the appointing authority, lose trust in her — something I don’t think will work.
The President has known Napeyok before even the corrupt officials who are now trying to tarnish the name of Napeyok were born.
The ongoing blackmailing on Ambassador Napeyok in the media is caused by her efforts to block the attempted plans by some Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff.
This is the story: Ambassador Napeyok, being a Karimojong who does things in an open manner, worked hard and curtailed the scheme that was intended to steal government money through dubious activities — a tendency where funds are sent to the mission purportedly to implement specific activities, only to be wired back to certain powerful cliques of individuals at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by their blue-eyed accounting officers, whom we shall name in the next story. These accounting officers have been more powerful than the heads of missions.
These accounting officers even have the power to shout at heads of mission because they are heavily protected by their bosses at headquarters in Kampala.
There is an accounting officer who reportedly fought with the head of mission in Algiers in front of Members of Parliament because of dubious dealings in funds. Surprisingly, instead of such an accounting officer being sanctioned or recalled to headquarters for retooling, he was reportedly rewarded with an even more lucrative opportunity of transfer to the Rome Mission, where he was allegedly immediately reappointed as accounting officer and, above all, he enjoys unlimited protection from headquarters. He has reportedly started spending mission funds as he wishes — a matter that caught the attention of the bank in Rome, which threatened to suspend the mission account if operations were not streamlined, compelling the bank to consult the head of mission whenever payments were to be made.
This development rubbed the accounting officer the wrong way, and he allegedly started making false claims against the head of mission to his powerful bosses at headquarters. What broke the camel’s back was when their alleged scheme to steal Rome Mission funds to the tune of UGX 850m failed because the head of mission requested to know where the money was going, since this was not an activity that the mission had planned for. The accounting officer allegedly used his connections with his clique to threaten the head of mission to allow the heist to go on, but the only incorruptible, fearless Karimojong Ambassador stood her ground to stop this level of corruption of government funds in broad daylight. That is why they are now using some media houses to paint a picture as if it is the Ambassador in the wrong.
The claim that Ambassador Napeyok is not promoting commercial diplomacy and tourism is laughable, yet of all African ambassadors in Rome, it is only Ambassador Napeyok who has evidence of explicit display of Uganda tourism promotion on commuter buses in Rome and other major Italian cities.
This has made other African ambassadors ask their governments for funds to emulate H.E. Napeyok’s example of marketing tourism.
The claim of Ambassador Napeyok frustrating an art exhibition at the Venice Biennale should be noted, but that activity was not planned in the Rome Mission workplan, and the people who negotiated it did so behind the back of the head of mission.
I would like to request Ugandans that we fight against those who are stealing public funds and support those who are fighting corruption.
The writer is a senior veteran journalist.
