The Court of Appeal in Kampala quashed the conviction of Ms. Ruth Achimo Etibot, the former Secretary of Soroti University, who had been convicted and sentenced to five years in prison over fraud-related charges. In a judgment delivered on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, the appellate court cleared Ms. Achimo of the crime, thus setting aside the decision of the Anti-Corruption Court.
It is on record that the Anti-Corruption Court, presided over by Justice Margaret Tibulya, found Ms. Achimo guilty of counts of abuse of office, diversion of public resources, fraudulent false accounting, and false accounting by a public officer in April 2023. The charges relate to her tenure as university secretary in the 2017-2018 financial year, whereby she is accused of improperly entering into a retainer agreement with Ms. Okurut & Co Advocates and authorizing a payment of Shs 1 billion in legal fees, which was allegedly unbudgeted and diverted from capital development funds.
Other counts included the embezzlement of Shs553 million meant for capital development to pay the university council members and forging the performance report of the fourth quarter of the 2017-2018 financial year.
But the three-member Justices panel, Geoffrey Kiryabwire, Muzamiru M. Kibeedi and Oscar J. Kihika found serious defects in the original ruling. They indicated that Justice Tibulya had failed to properly assess the evidence, and his decision was based on an audit report that was the work of a person who was incompetent. The justices pointed out that though the audit report had been signed by the Auditor General himself, it was authored by someone who was not a registered professional accountant, having not passed the ACCA paper, hence a miscarriage of justice as they termed it.
The appellate court has also pointed out that the audit report was not properly authorized by the Soroti University Council and that it had been maliciously used against Ms. Achimo. In addition, the justices have put a premium on the fact that Ms. Achimo was never given a chance to respond to the findings of the audit, which they have categorized as another very important legal oversight.
On the charge of misappropriating money meant to pay university council members, the court observed that all those who received the money did not deny receiving it, hence killing further the prosecution’s case.
After being acquitted, Ms Achimo issued a statement on Thursday in which she claimed the charges against her were orchestrated by ill-minded people who wanted her out of office as university secretary.
By the time of going to press, the Soroti University Council and the university’s vice-chancellor had not commented in regard to the ruling from the Court of Appeal.
