Norway, Sweden and Denmark have followed Ireland’s lead and asked Uganda to return the money which was allegedly misappropriated by government officials.
An investigation by the country’s Auditor General found that $13.4m in aid had been diverted.
The diverted funds had been allocated for the northern Uganda reconstruction programme and misappropriated by officials in the Office of the Prime Minister.
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and Britain froze their aid to Uganda after the scandal was revealed.
The AFP reported yesterday that following Ireland’s announcement in November that Uganda had pledged to return four million euros of Irish funds, the three Scandinavian countries have all asked to be reimbursed by the Ugandan Government.
Norway says its only asking for a partial refund, since its aid was paid into a special account that made it easier to identify fraudulent transactions.
“We have asked to be repaid 23 million Kroner ($4.2m) and we have been promised that we will be refunded,” AFP quoted Astrid Versto, a spokesperson for the Norwegian minister of international development, as saying.
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