Works and Transport Minister Eng. Abraham Byandala and other top UNRA bosses have today been granted bail.
Anti Corruption Court Magistrate Julius Borore said that each of the accused must deposit Shs10m cash whereas each of their 2 sureties is to pay a non-cash bond of Shs100m.
Last week, Byandala and other UNRA officials appeared before the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo and were charged with 24 offences of fraud, corruption and abuse of office.
Uganda National Roads Authority top officials faced a multibillion fraud scandal in which a quack US based company Eutaw was handed the road contract without due diligence.
A report by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) pinned Byandala for forcing the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to sign and advance Shs24.7bn payment to a non-existent firm, EUTAW.
It was discovered by the IGG that the EUTAW construction company that won the tender had no relations to the firm in the US that it had used as its parent company.
Eutaw Construction Company won the Shs165b road project, which President Yoweri Museveni launched on July 7 2014.
UNRA cancelled the contract for the 74km Mukono-Katosi road project following orders from the Inspector General of Government who said Eutaw and CICO, a Chinese company subcontracted for the project, colluded to defraud the government of Shs24b in advance payment.
Upon canceling the contract on orders of the IGG, The Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) governing board suspended four senior staff, including the then acting executive director, Eng. Ssebugga Kimeze, Director for planning, Eng. David Luyimbazi, Joe Ssemugooma, the director for finance and Marvin Baryaruha, the director for legal.
The Police’s Special Investigations Division (SID) has since interrogated and recorded statements from several UNRA senior staff in connection to the road scam.