| KAMPALA
SHS212 million meant to clear electricity bills for the Uganda Peoplels Defence Force (UPDF) has been stolen.
Police sources that preferred anonymity said cheques for the money, written for the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL), were found to have been cashed by the suspects on an account with Centenary Rural Development Bank (Cerudeb) on Entebbe Road in May.
The Army Spokesman, Lt. Col. Shaban Bantariza, said Mr Martin Okoth, a UEDCL staff, whom UEDCL introduced to the UPDF to collect the electricity bill payments, picked the cheques.
It is a case which the CID is handling. It is more of UEDCL than for us because they introduced Okoth to us in a letter and he had a UEDCL identity card. He has been picking cheques from us for a long time, he said.
Bantariza said the army was ready to turn in their staff, who would be implicated by the police in the alleged fraud.
Daily Monitor failed to get a comment from the UEDCL
Managing
Director, Ms Irene Muloni.
A CID source close to the investigations said that UEDCL's Okoth was under investigations over the stolen cheques.
The source said apparently, the suspected fraudsters forged official company letters and opened a new account at the Cerudeb branch and withdrew the money when the cheques were cleared.
The fraud was brought to light by Bank of Uganda, which issues cheques for the Ministry of Defence during their reconciliation process with UEDCL.
UEDCL said they had not been paid and it was established that the cheques were diverted to an account with Cerudeb. | 
