The Anti-Corruption Court has commenced the trial of 14 officials of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) accused of causing a financial loss of Shs9.3 billion through the alleged issuance and use of invalid gorilla and chimpanzee tracking permits.
The trial opened before Justice Michael Elubu, who admitted several uncontested documents presented by the prosecution to support the case against the accused officials.
The documents admitted as evidence include UWA employment contracts, the authority’s Human Resource Manual dated 1st July 2023, the revised Financial Procedures Manual of 2016, and the Reservation and Booking System User Manual dated 31st July 2020.
The court also admitted orders authorizing the inspection and extraction of mobile money statements, subscriber details, call records, and customer verification data linked to three telephone numbers.
Justice Elubu ruled that the documents be admitted as prosecution exhibits after the defence raised no objections.
The prosecution, led by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Barbra Kawuma, assisted by Chief State Attorney Edward Muhumuza and Senior State Attorney Innocent Aleto, alleges that the accused officials failed to establish and enforce systems that would have safeguarded revenue generated from gorilla and chimpanzee tracking activities.
According to court documents, Stephen Sanyi Masaba, the former Director of Tourism and Business Development at UWA, is accused of failing to put in place effective revenue collection systems, thereby allowing invalid permits to be used in national parks between July 2020 and September 2023.
Jimmy Mugisa, the former Director of Finance and Administration, is accused of failing to maintain proper financial management systems and records that would have enabled accurate tracking of tourism revenue.
Robert Maani, a Senior Warden in charge of accounts, is alleged to have failed to reconcile tracking revenue with daily visitor numbers, a lapse prosecutors say facilitated the use of invalid permits.
The prosecution further alleges that Leslie Muhindo, then Head of Reservations, manipulated the GoChimp reservation system by inserting, confirming, splitting, and rescheduling invalid permits for dozens of visitors, causing losses amounting to hundreds of millions of shillings.
Several other officials, including ICT Manager Alfred Emmanuel Ndikusooka, Software Development Warden Gilbert Mwesigwa, Sales Executive Gad Ekochu, Shafik Twebaze, Rose Namutebi, and Grace Mubeezi, are also facing multiple charges related to the alleged creation, confirmation, printing, cancellation, and rescheduling of invalid tracking permits.
Prosecutors claim that a total of 1,401 invalid gorilla and chimpanzee tracking permits were issued across various tourism destinations, resulting in a loss of Shs9.3 billion to the government.
Uganda’s gorilla tourism industry remains one of the country’s biggest foreign exchange earners, generating nearly 70 percent of tourism revenue. Gorilla tracking permits alone reportedly bring in approximately Shs130 billion annually.
The hearing continues before the Anti-Corruption Court as prosecutors seek to prove their case against the accused officials.
