The Inspector-General of Police, Okoth Ochola, has directed the director of logistics and engineering, Godfrey Bangirana, who is under probe on allegations of mismanaging procurement deals, to leave office immediately.
Bangirana, an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP), applied to have his two-year contract renewed again through the secretary of the Police Authority recently, but this has not yet been done.
His contract was last renewed on July 17, 2017, and expired on July 16, 2019. In that position, Bangirana has been managing the Police’s procurements, taking care of construction projects and purchase of the force’s equipment worth billions of shillings.
In a July 19 letter to Bangirana, Ochola ordered the AIGP to leave office as the force awaits feedback from the Police Authority. Just three days after the expiry of Bangirana’s contract, Ochola also directed him to hand over office to SCP Richard Edyegu one of the deputy directors in the directorate of logistics.
“Note that your continued stay in office is bound to raise several queries by the head of public service,” the police boss said.
Ochola ordered Bangirana to hand over the office on Monday, but by last evening, he had not done so. Earlier, speaking to journalists at the weekly Police briefing, the force’s spokesperson, Fred Enanga, said the institution expected Bangirana to hand over any time yesterday.
Investigations
Bangirana is being investigated by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) over alleged irregularities in procurement deals. The probe stems from a whistleblower’s report to the inspectorate.
The IGG spokesperson, Ali Munira, said the inspectorate is still conducting investigations into the allegations.
“I can confirm that we are still investigating those allegations. I cannot state when we shall be through, but it will be soon,” she said.
In May 2018, the police force was officially handed the BELL 206B seven-seater chopper made in the US by Yamasec Security Limited, a company that had done refurbishment on the chopper that had been grounded for over 10 years.
During the function to launch it, the refurbished chopper on two occasions failed to start prompting engineers to rush to fix the problem until it, at last, hovered in the skies.
In 2018 August a letter was sent to the IGG where a concerned citizen tasked the IGG to look into a number of procurement deals in the Police force overseen by AIGP Bangirana as the director in charge of logistics for the force.
“He has superintended over gross procurement flaws that have not only affected the police force but also the various suppliers who have various contracts with the force,” reads in part, the concerned citizen’s letter.
The concerned citizen says there is a need for worry because, by 2017, the logistics directorate of the police force had allegedly accumulated debt to a tune of shs125 billion.
In the letter, the IGG has also been asked to look into the construction of Nateete police station which he said has been quoted to have cost shs100bn yet on its ‘face value’ it does not seem to cost more than shs20 billion.
