By William Madouk Garang
Minister of Finance and Planning, Dier Tong Ngor has debunked rumors that he was under investigation for remitting US dollars 15 million, a public money to his personal account in one of the national banks in the neighboring Country.
This comes after a source claimed that the Finance Minister was involved in a money laundering scheme and he has remitted a huge amount of money into his bank in a Ugandan Bank.
The source accused Mr. Ngor of transferring $15 million into his bank account just two months after his appointment into office, adding that deliberate scam is a total shame to the Country.
“The heads of security institutions stormed the Ministry of Finance to investigate about the alleged scandal of $15 million USD remitted to National Bank of the Republic of Uganda,” the source wrote in a Facebook post.
“Dier Tong Ngor is accused of graft in connection with financial scandals or embezzlement confirmed in Capital Kampala. The transfer of $15 million and embezzling $20 million others caught in his private account in Juba,” he continued.
Meanwhile reacting to the social media rumor, the Ministry of Finance said the allegations making round on social media are nothing but rumors spread by unhappy elements, fighting transparency efforts put in place and reforms in public finance mechanism sector.
“We would like to inform the general public and our development partners that the Hon. Minister is not under any investigation whatsoever and is normally performing his official duties,” the statement partly reads.
“I was aware when I was honored with responsibility by the Ministry of Finance and Planning that I would be facing pernicious resistance from those benefiting from the inherent weakness in our public finance system,” it added.
Minister Ngor however said he has forgiven those campaigning for “misinformation” and “character assassination” and urged the public to be vigilant, not to be misled.
“I shall therefore not be deterred or intimidated in my determent quest to strengthen our public financial management (PFM) system and so serve our people with dignity, honesty and integrity,” he asserted.
Meanwhile Minister Ngor bluntly said he was sworn in to work for the President, a statement critics thought is not right as they think implies the official will not be working for the interest of the citizens though report to the President as the case should have been since that’s a public office.
“I have taken an oath of office to work for the President of the Republic, H.E. Salva Kiir Mayardit, to attain macroeconomic stability, economic growth, and poverty reduction,” he asserted.