Many corrupt Government officials are investing in real estate using proxies, the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) has told parliament.
According to FIA, there are so many ‘investors’ whose sources of money are unknown. Uganda loses about Shs1 trillion annually in corruption.
While appearing before Parliament’s Finance Committee recently, Sydney Asubo, the FIA Executive Director said some of the investors come through the public-private partnerships to do business with government but with intention of stealing public funds.
He revealed that most of the money stolen from government is invested within the country mainly in real estate since land transactions in Uganda are not well documented.
He said that their assessment show that money laundering is mainly in crimes which include illicit dealing in minerals, fraud and corruption, human trafficking and illicit trade in wildlife products and drugs.
However, Ibanda North MP, Xavier Kyooma told the officials of the Financial Intelligence Authority that the thieves of government funds are not fearful to re-invest their money in businesses within the country because Financial Intelligence Authority is not doing its work .
He added that though FIA claims that stolen money is re-invested in Uganda ,its impact is not felt since their job provision to Ugandans is not seen.
