Three board members on spot over illegal cash withraw from the Sacco account.

Rukungiri: Three board members of Rukungiri Municipality fishermen Sacco are on spot for allegedly withdrawing over 5 million shillings from the SACCO account without members consent.

The members accused are the Sacco Chairperson, Fred Kamugisha, Treasurer – Rev Elidad Twikirize, and Board secretary, Lydia Kemigisha.

Their accusations surfaced during Wednesday’s special meeting held at Southern division offices in Rwakabengo ward, Rukungiri municipality.

In the meeting, the chairperson of the vetting committee, Evat Arinaitwe accused Kemigisha Lydia of withdrawing money from their account without approval of the committee members.

He said Sacco owes Kemigisha 2.1 million shillings in default which she admits.

The board’s vice Chairperson, James Kwijuka Rubaranda blames Rev Elidad for failure to provide proper accountability of the money he illegally acquired. He also accuses him of failure to mobilize Sacco members to attend the meetings which he says has led to the defaulting of the loans already disbursed.

Meanwhile Denis Ngabirano, A member of the Sacco, accused the board members of failure to give them loans which they applied for but chose to share the money among themselves.

However, the Rukungiri Municipality principal commercial officer, Grace Tayebwa condemned the act of embezzlement of SACCO money and advocated for transparency.

The meeting guided by the commercial officer appointed new board members as a way of solving inefficiency within the SACCO.

The three members however accepted their mistakes and were given a deadline of up to 20th December 2023, to clear to zero balance.