OSLO, Jan 28, 2013 (AFP) - Norway, Sweden and Denmark -- following Ireland's lead -- have asked Uganda to return aid that was allegedly misappropriated in the East African country, government officials said on Monday.
An investigation by the auditor general of Uganda last year found that 10 million euros ($13.4 million) in aid had been funnelled into private accounts linked to the prime minister's office in Kampala.
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and Britain all froze their aid to the country after the scandal was revealed.
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.
However, Norway is 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 (3.1 million euros, $4.2 million) and we have been promised that we will be," said Astrid Versto, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian minister of international development.
Unlike Norway, the other countries had transferred their funds into a joint account, making it harder to trace the money, she added.
According to a spokeswoman for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), negotiations to recover 45 million kronor (5.2 million euros or $7.0 million) in Swedish aid are ongoing.
Denmark has been told by the Ugandan government that its 10 million kroner (1.3 million euros or $1.8 million) contribution will be fully repaid, according to Birger Fredriksson, a minister counsellor at the Danish foreign ministry.
Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has denied having any knowledge of the incident and has rejected calls to step down.
The Peace, Recovery and Development Programme for northern Uganda, established to rebuild the region after decades of conflict and devastation, received funds from Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
A guerrilla campaign was waged in Uganda between 1987 and 2006 by the Lord's Resistance Army, which became notorious for kidnapping children and forcing them to become child soldiers.
Uganda ranks among the world's 40 least-transparent states and has the highest level of corruption in East Africa, according to graft watchdog Transparency International.
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