Written by Carren Papai
2012-06-21 11:46:00
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Councilors in Teso County Council Wednesday made a consensus of suspending two fellow councilors for three months over what they termed as gross misconduct.
This resolution was approved in a finance staff meeting and general purpose meeting held at the council‘s social hall two days after the two suspended councilors had led residents in a demonstration to the council’s premises.
The demonstration was over the allegation of 15 million shillings that is said to be embezzled by top officials. They locked them out of their offices till they would account for the mess. They expressed their views that the taxpayer’s money was misappropriated.
The councilors in the meeting collectively discussed the conduct of the two and asked councilor Mourice Chetambe and public officer Pascal Okiru to avail information on the alleged 15m embezzled in the council and to state which committee of council mandated them to carry out the investigations and where they presented their findings.
“The two should show course why necessary actions should not be taken against them, what they did was out of conduct ,the action caused tension in the council and among the residents and it was not good they have to prove their allegations”, said James Mugwere one the officials mentioned in the embezzled 15 million.
While addressing journalists immediately after the suspension, councilor Mourice Chetambe said that the move was illegal and councilors are notauthorized to suspend fellow councilors. He added that they needed to prove first that their findings were misleading.
“How can councilors suspend fellow councilors? My appointing authority should be the one to send me packing not the councilors‘,’ said Chetambe.
Teso county council Public Officer Pascal Okiru revealed that the intention was to intimidate them and said they shall not be scared by the move. Okiru also said the councilors should have first confirmed or refuted the allegations instead of panicking.
“We are not going to be stopped from exposing the rot in the council and we are ready to sacrifice our career to create sanity; in fact we are forwarding the matter to Anti Corruption Authority to chip in and probe the issue‘’, said the Public Officer. Switch to Our Mobile Site |
