Engineer Moris Thibenda has denied allegations that he received more than Shs 3.7 billion from the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) Capacity Building Project, saying he was neither an employee nor a consultant of the corporation.
In a letter dated August 4, 2026, and copied to the minister for Works and Transport and the URC managing director, Thibenda said he was employed by Spanish consultancy firm Consultrans S.A.U., which was contracted by URC to implement the project.
The letter follows proceedings before parliament’s committee on physical infrastructure, which is investigating the management of URC, largely based on findings in a recent Auditor General’s report.
Thibenda said reports arising from the committee proceedings alleged that he and two other individuals shared Shs 25 billion allocated to the Capacity Building Project.
He was also reportedly accused of receiving about €864,000, equivalent to approximately Shs 3.7 billion, after allegedly being presented as a foreign consultant and falsely claiming to have travelled between Uganda and Spain.
Thibenda described the allegations as “false, misleading and without any factual basis”, saying they had subjected him to public ridicule, emotional distress and damage to his professional reputation.
He said Consultrans deployed him as the infrastructure and project management key expert on its project team and that he was not a party to the contract between URC and the Spanish firm.
“All related matters about my contract including payment of my salary was handled by True North HR Consulting and later NFT Consult Limited. Therefore, I was never a party to the contract between URC and Consultrans,” he said.
Thibenda said he never received consultancy fees, contractual payments, allowances or any other remuneration from URC in relation to the project.
“My remuneration throughout the project period can be independently verified through the statutory records maintained by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF),” he said.
He also denied having any role in negotiating, administering or approving the Consultrans contract, determining its price or payment schedules, setting consultant remuneration, handling procurement arrangements or managing the project’s finances.
His role, he said, was limited to providing technical services as the infrastructure and project management key expert. Thibenda also rejected reports that he was paid for trips to Spain that he did not make.
He said he travelled to Spain in November 2022 as part of a benchmarking programme under the project, where he facilitated and coordinated activities for a URC delegation as a member of Consultrans’ project team.
He categorically denied receiving €864,000, or “any amount remotely close” to that figure, or sharing funds allegedly allocated to the Capacity Building Project.
URC clarification
Thibenda’s account is consistent with the position of URC management, which has said the corporation did not directly receive or handle funds under the project because payments were made directly to Consultrans in Spain.
According to URC, the Capacity Building Project was valued at €4.8 million, equivalent to about Shs 20.84 billion at current exchange rates, rather than more than Shs 25 billion reportedly cited during the committee proceedings.
URC has also clarified that the €4.8 million was not exclusively intended for staff training.
Refresher courses for URC employees formed only part of the capacity-building component, while the budget also covered the contractor’s operational costs in Uganda over the three-year project period, including payments to Ugandan staff and foreign experts.
“All project funds were sent directly to the contractor in Spain, and no funds were directly disbursed to URC for this project,” URC said.
A source at URC said Thibenda earns Shs 7 million a month from his consultancy employer, which would amount to about Shs 252 million over the period in question, rather than the Shs 3.7 billion allegedly attributed to him.
Thibenda said any payments made by URC under the project were made in fulfilment of its contractual obligations to Consultrans and should not be construed as payments to individual members of the consultant’s team.
He has asked parliament’s committee to review and verify the circumstances surrounding his involvement in the project and correct any records or statements suggesting that he was an employee or individual consultant of URC or that he received or shared funds allocated to the project.
He also wants the committee to clarify that he was not a contracting party to the project and that his role was limited to providing professional technical services as an employee on Consultrans’ project team.
Thibenda further called for measures to correct what he described as inaccurate information about his involvement and to stop the continued dissemination of the allegations.
