By Steven Enatu
SOROTI CITY
Soroti District Principal Human Resource Officer Simon Okanya is at large and wanted by security and court for prosecution.
This was revealed to this website by the Soroti District Resident Commissioner, Ssalim Kumakech in an exclusive interview with this reporter last Friday, 14th July, 2023.
Kumakech says Okanya jumped bail late last year and court issued an arrest warrant instructing security to arrest him on sight. He has requested the public to immediately report the presence of Okanya to the nearest security facility.
Okanya was arrested last year in September for causing a financial loss to the district by inflating the payroll. Okanya was making the district lose 500million annually paying ghost workers. He was on several occasions reported of extorting money from pensioners under the pretexts that they have been over paid by the government.
He together with Charles Oonyu, his junior human resource officer and the internal district auditor were arrested by police in conjunction with the State House Anti-Corruption Unit in September.
Kumakech noted that the matter was cited from the financial year 2020/2021 and 2021/2022.
He added that Okanya had also illegally recruited his wife to work as the Community Development Officer of Arapai Sub County then.
Okanya is still assumed to be the principal human resources officer for Soroti district despite him not being in his office. “He is still assumed to be the PHRO because the court has not yet tried him and proved him guilty but he remains at large,” Kumakech said.
