Engineer Thibenda denies receiving Shs 3.7bn in consultancy fees from URC

What the report says

Engineer Moris Thibenda has denied allegations that he received more than Shs 3.7 billion linked to the Uganda Railways Corporation (URC) Capacity Building Project, saying he was not an employee or consultant of URC. In a letter dated August 4, 2026, and copied to the Works and Transport minister and the URC managing director, he said he worked for Spanish firm Consultrans S.A.U., which URC contracted to carry out the project.

The dispute comes amid parliamentary committee proceedings examining URC’s management, based in part on findings from a recent Auditor General’s report. Thibenda said media and committee-related reports had wrongly suggested he and others shared funds from the project, including an allegation that he received about €864,000. He rejected those claims as unfounded and said his remuneration was handled by human-resources firms linked to his employer, not by URC.

Thibenda said his role was limited to technical work as infrastructure and project management key expert on the contractor’s team. He denied any involvement in negotiating, pricing, administering, or approving the URC-Consultrans contract, and said he never received consultancy fees, allowances, or other direct payments from URC. He also said he travelled to Spain in November 2022 as part of a project benchmarking exercise.

URC, as quoted by The Observer, said project funds were paid directly to Consultrans in Spain and were not handled by the corporation. The outlet reported that URC valued the capacity-building project at €4.8 million, or about Shs 20.84 billion, and said the budget covered more than staff training alone. Thibenda has asked parliament to review the records and correct what he says are inaccurate claims about his role.