Americans don’t hate Ugandan Muslims - US amba-ssador defends his country's historical record:

 

 

US ambassador

US ambassador, Mr Scott Delisi,  

 

By Abubaker Kirunda

 

Posted  Saturday, February 14  2015 

 

MAYUGE- The US Ambassador, Mr Scott DeLisi, has said American citizens do not harbour any hatred or ill will towards Muslims.

“There is a fast growing population of Muslims in America of over seven million people and 1,500 mosques implying that rumours of hatred are not true,” Mr DeLisi said.

Mr DeLisi made the remarks in Mayuge District on Tuesday during the launch of the Uganda Muslim America Skill Friendship Training Centre, which is run and funded by the Muslim Centre for Justice and Law in partnership with American Embassy.

Strong ties

The diplomat also described as wrong a perception that ties between USA and Muslims are weak. He said the fact that USA has always supported development projects run by Muslims is testimony that America has strong ties with Muslim communities.

According to the President of the Muslim Centre for Justice and Law, Mr Jaffer Ssenganda, the facility helps to provide youth with free training in, among others, Information Communication Technology, catering, tailoring, crafts’ making and other practical survival skills.

The Mayuge Resident District Commissioner, Mr Badru Ssebyala, commended the directors of the centre for coming up with such programmes, saying they will contribute towards stabilising the country by fighting unemployment, which he said is usually a cause of unrest in most African nations.

editorial@

ug.nationmedia.com

 

 

 

 The government of Uganda has procured armoured police vehicles for the 2016 General Elections from South Africa:
 
 
 
 

For whom are the youths in UGANDA trained in Masindi at,

Kalabye?

 8 September, 2014

 By Pius Muteekani Katunzi
 
 
 
 
 
 
I am worried that the so-called crime preventers who are (were) being trained at a police training school in Kabalye, Masindi may, in future, become the burden they are trying to untangle now.
 

In January, about 700 Makerere University students were trained as crime preventers at the same school. The criterion used to select these students is not elaborate and is exclusive to those who are either in the patriotic clubs or the youth league of the National Resistance Movement (NRM).

Several student groups have attended these courses at Kabalye. Another one of about 2,400 students from several universities and tertiary institution was passed out last week.

We are told the course content includes ideological orientation, self-defence, martial arts, and security skills, among others. I am not sure of how this programme is supposed to add value onto the lives of students, and Ugandans as a whole! Further, I don’t know whether the police budget should be diverted to this kind of exercise.

What exactly does a crime preventer do? Is he/she a security operative who gathers information on certain offenders and then confront them? Is this a voluntary exercise or it is a paid- for, job? If so, it, therefore, calls for certain regulations, obligations and responsibilities.

Is this an auxiliary group to the security organs? Are these students specifically trained to prevent crimes in universities or in the entire country? Sometimes, armed people commit crimes. So, will the crime preventer be armed in order to counter any armed attack?  It is not clear whether all the national tertiary institutions will be equipped with crime preventers. Once, the dubious Kiboko squad described itself as crime preventers.

So, should Ugandans worry that another dodgy group is being prepared, perhaps for the expected intense political activity in 2016?

What is the relationship between these crime preventers and the police, army, and other security agencies in the country? Many of these questions still remain unanswered.  Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura says the course is good because it has equipped the young people with ideological direction.

The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines ideology as a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. It further defines it as the ideas and manner of thinking characteristic of a group, social class, or individual. So, if the course is supposed to orientate the students in ideology, in whose ideology are they inculcated? Who determines the correct ideology, and anyway, what ideology was being marketed to these students?

Again, there is a trend that one cannot be a complete cadre or patriot without being equipped with military skills. Everything in Uganda is being militarised. Agriculture has to be run by the military. The police have to be steered by a military man. The immigration and national identification process has to be conducted by the military. A military man runs the highest office in the land.

Ruling party MPs have to conduct their annual retreat in a semi-military camp. Early this year, they (MPs) were all clad in attires that resembled military uniforms! Even the beauty contest is a candidate for military takeover! At their pass-out, the youths gleefully displayed their skills of dismantling and assembling guns. Others performed martial art drills.

Some of these youths are, actually, mere opportunists. They are using this training as a pedestal to clutch on better things in future. Many of them have realised that keeping closer to the party means instant wealth. They have seen how those youths who originally backed Amama Mbabazi for president, but later crossed to President Museveni’s camp, have become instant millionaires.

They know that when time comes for recruiting mobilisers for votes in 2016, priority will be given to those who trained at Kabalye.  Instant, and sometimes unexplained, wealth has become the major motivation of joining NRM programmes. I don’t know the exact ideological direction of the NRM. Even if one asked these youths what NRM’s ideology is, the likelihood is that the answer would not be given. And if it is given, the one who asks the question would remain uninformed.

This exercise in Kabalye is as inoperable as the youth representation in Parliament. The lives of the youth in Uganda have not improved as a consequence of being represented in Parliament. I have not seen bills being sponsored by youth MPs, specifically targeting issues that youths grapple with.

The irony is that the very youths who have trained in crime prevention may be the harbingers of crime. There is a temptation to look at crime as mainly a physical thing such as murder, treason, theft and rape. We forget that there is an unemployed youth likely to engage in forgery in order to access someone else’s account in the bank.

And more threatening is the fact that honesty is no longer something taken seriously, as the strength of youths. So, the economic pressures, which Kabalye never addressed, may turn these cadres of crime prevention into victims of the very mischief they intended to cure. It would be stretching the restraint of a hungry hyena to entrust it with the servicing of a loaded butchery. 

 

pmkatunzi@

observer.

ug

Twitter: @piuskm

 

 

Why does IMF print cash money for the rich countries, but issue loans for the poor countries:

The very poor in Asia suffering it out on planet earth.

 

 

Written by Louis Namwanja Kizito

 

At the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns in April, something happened that was not widely reported by our African mainstream media.

The USA Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin voiced the United States’ opposition towards the IMF creating liquidity for African countries through the issuance of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Some are strongly inclined to the view that the reason the USA and India opposed this issue was due to the growing trade tensions between USA and China.

In his statement to the IMF’s steering committee, Mnuchin argued that it would be better for advanced economies to contribute to other IMF facilities to help poorer countries.

He said, and rightly so, that 70 per cent of the funds created through an SDR allocation, something very similar to a central bank “printing” new money, would go to G20 countries, most of whom did not need it, while only three per cent would go to low-income countries.

Since this conversation is going to be technical, let me first define Special Drawing Rights. The special drawing rights, in my view, are world money backed by nothing but printed at will. Once the IMF issues an SDR, it sits comfortably in the reserve accounts of the recipient country, just like the dollars in our foreign exchange reserves.

SDRs were created in 1969 to supplement a shortfall of preferred foreign exchange reserve assets, namely gold and USA dollars. In the IMF’s own definition, SDRs are units of account for the IMF, and not a currency per se. According to the IMF, they just represent a claim to currency held by IMF member countries for which they may be exchanged.

Experts object to referring to SDRs as money owing to the fact that individuals can’t own them. However, these SDRs do satisfy the traditional definition of money in many respects; they are a store of value because nations keep a portion of their reserves in SDR-denominated assets.

 

They are a medium of exchange owing to the fact that nations that run trade deficits or surpluses can settle their local currency trade imbalances with other nations in SDR-denominated instruments and finally they are a unit of account because the IMF keeps its books and records, assets and liabilities in SDR units.

The fact that Steve Mnuchin stated that in times of crisis such as these, SDRS can only help developed countries at no cost by printing more of them and allocate them to the G20 at no cost while the rest of us in Africa have to wait for them to receive these new SDRs and then loan them to us at an interest, shows how unfair this current global monetary system is.

Africans should wake up to the fact that this global monetary system is rigged against Africans. Recently, Uganda received an emergency loan worth Shs 1.9 trillion from the IMF to help cushion its economy from the impact of coronavirus. But Uganda is increasingly becoming a highly-indebted country.

One wonders why the IMF can’t issue special drawing rights to African countries, but chooses to give a long-term loan at no interest.

Ever since former USA president Richard Nixon “temporarily” suspended the convertibility of dollars into gold (gold standard), something that has long become permanent, in order for Western governments to get liquidity, they have gone on a money printing spree without a gold limit.

Even during this Covid-19 pandemic, the USA federal reserve has printed so much money through quantitative easing, to the point that the federal reserve’s balance sheet has increased from $4 trillion pre-Covid 19 to $7 trillion. This explains why gold prices are higher than ever.

Money is just a medium by which things are exchanged, not the value for which they are, philosophers say. Therefore, the allocation of printed SDRs according to the size of economies should be reformed to provide equity.

 

 

 

 

 

In Uganda, the Ministry of Education and Sports has spent well the Shs 665m on Akii-bua stadium:

3 November,  2018

Written by URN

The pavillion stand at the construction site

The pavillion stand at the construction site

 

The ministry of Education and Sports has clarified on the money disbursed for the construction of Akii-Bua Olympic stadium that has got social media users on the African continent talking. There were claims that more than Shs 600 million disbursed for the construction of the stadium had been mismanaged. 

Early this week, the parliamentary committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) referred Lamex Omara Apitta, the commissioner of physical education under the Education and Sports ministry for alleged mismanagement of the money advanced for stadium works.

Before he was handed over to police, Omara told MPs that government had disbursed Shs 665million for the construction of the stadium. But in twist of events, the Lira chief administrative officer (CAO), Mark Tivu said a day later that the district had only received Shs received 300 million that they spent on clearing the 12-acre, site which involved uprooting trees, levelling the ground, opening boundaries and access roads, draining the swamp, construction of a pit latrine and the construction of a 200-seater pavilion.

But the ministry of Education under secretary, Aggrey Kibenge, insists that they disbursed Shs 665 million to Lira district.

He explains that the ministry first channelled Shs 400 million to Lira district local government in FY 2015/2016, Shs 175 million FY 2016/2017 and Shs 90 million FY 2017/2018. Kibenge says there could have been an information gap and that why some district officials say they did not receive Shs 665m but their records show that Lira district received a total of Shs 665 million. 

Kibenge explains that Lira district asked for Shs 665 million for opening the boundaries of the land earmarked to host the facility, clear and level the field of 18.455 hectares, construction of access roads and drainage channels. He says work has been progressing well except for the misinformation about the alleged misuse of the funds.

"Demarcation of two temporary football fields, a basketball and volleyball field, construction of a 3 stance latrine and a 150 seater temporary pavilion has been made," Kibenge told URN in an interview.

Lira district CAO, Tivu, has since backtracked on his earlier claims that they only received Shs 300 million. In his October 30 letter to the ministry, Tivu confirms having received Shs 665 million. He also attached copies of audited payment vouchers on the letter detailing how the money was spent. 
 
"It is important to note that all activities were implemented as planned based on the funding received and there was no audit queries raised as far as the implementation were concerned," reads the letter.

He explains that they need an additional Shs 260 million for the construction of changing rooms, guest pavilion and also installing culverts.
 
Omara, the commissioner physical education in the Education ministry, says only Shs 80 million was used to construct the pavilion at the stadium, while Shs 150 million went to survey the land, bush clearing, leveling, demarcation and grading the hardcore surface.
 
He explains that another Shs 120 million was spent on paying compensation for the land, graveling, marrum works, draining the swamp, planting grass and selected trees. Omara says most the preliminary work went towards preparation of the site and not construction.

According to the original plan of the stadium, it is expected to cost $47m (about Shs 175bn). Once completed, the stadium is expected to come second to the Namboole stadium in Kampala. 

"The money is supposed to come from China, and the ministry of Finance and planning and the Office of the Prime Minister are looking at this. If it is to be the stadium that people expect it cannot just cost Shs 600m," Omara said.

Nb

They did what NRM system of governance wanted them to do. A place where NRM politicians can meet with the people of the Northern provinces and educate them about the beauty of Ujamaa. Nothing to do with modern competitive international Sports games.

 

 

 

 

 

The Government of Uganda has made corruption attractive and the banks do not seem to care to recover millions of shillings of borrowed money:

The worst corruption can do to the country of Uganda for schools

The protected in government corruption

17 October,  2018

Written by Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda

On Wednesday October 10, I and colleagues who sit on the Parliament Public Accounts Committee (PAC) retreated to Entebbe to write reports on the findings of the auditor general relating to abuse and misuse of public funds.

Of course the auditor general, like all audits, is postmortem, done when the money is already stolen or misused. The situation is made worse because parliamentary committees responsible for processing the auditor general’s reports consider them several years later.

I think, in future, the country will need to sanction MPs for not doing their work. The constitution sets a deadline within which the auditor general must produce a report and a deadline within which parliament must process it.

 

The auditor general, to his credit, submits these reports within the constitutional deadline but parliament never considers them. In Entebbe, therefore, we were processing reports of 2014/15 and 2015/16.   

One of the auditor general’s reports we considered in our retreat was on the recently constructed and commissioned markets in Lira, Gulu, Fort Portal, Hoima, Mbale, Jinja and Kampala.

To commence construction, Uganda borrowed more than Shs 83 billion from the African Development Bank (AfDB). We also borrowed some money from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA). The project to redevelop markets is what came to be known as Markets and Agricultural Trade Improvement Project (MATIP).

Wandegeya market alone cost us Shs 22 billion. I have used Wandegeya to help you understand how many markets our president “eats” every year.

To construct markets, we borrowed Shs 83 billion from ADB yet our good president allocated himself Shs 97 billion every year for donations. This is the money he goes waving in Kamwokya, Bwaise, Nsambya and Kireka.

It is also important for you to note that Jennifer Musisi, Executive Director of KCCA spent Shs 40 billion to buy Usafi market in Katwe, which is eucalyptus poles and iron sheets but that is a story for another day.

Vulnerable vendors have been dressed in yellow T-shirts to welcome the president each time he has gone out to commission these markets, posing like he is the donor.

This year, government will have to pay more than Shs 4 trillion in interest for money it has borrowed from commercial banks and abroad. These vendors who dance for him as he commissions markets don’t know that the same person will return as a ghost to collect the money spent on the markets from them as mobile money tax and other fees.

And the auditor general in a value-for-money audit, reports an overpayment of Shs 756 million to various contractors and Shs 901 million, which was understated for the Lira and Hoima markets.

The auditor general further reports that a number of facilities agreed in the contracts were left out by the contractors. The facilities left out included: lockups, stalls, cold rooms, restaurants, banking halls, clinics and pharmacies.

And guess what? When PAC visited, it saw broken pipes already emitting sewage and flooding because of poor drainage. There is flooding at Kiruddu hospital for which we also borrowed money.

Heavy downpour found me at Kiruddu hospital when I had gone to visit Nambooze Bakirekke (Mukono Municipality MP) and the whole ground floor was like a river. This is the fate of many projects under this administration. Most of them are disposable and although borrowed money is used, the facilities won’t outlive the regime.

And there are no culprits. At Entebbe, we asked ourselves many times which sort of punishment we should recommend for people who have stolen or failed to stop the stealing. We didn’t know what will work because to trust this regime with prosecution is to pretend.

My friend Gerald Karuhanga even wondered whether recovery of the stolen money would be of value. It would be like entrusting a lion with a zebra rescued from hunters.

Remember all the work that the auditor general and PAC did after the 2007 CHOGM scandals. Ministers Sam Kutesa, John Nasasira and Mwesigwa Rukutana were accused of causing financial loss and abuse of office when they sanctioned construction of parkings, a marina and other facilities at Sudhir Rupaleria’s Speke Resort Munyonyo at a cost of Shs 14 billion.

These ministers were supposed to appear in the Anti-Corruption court but for obvious reasons they didn’t. They petitioned the Constitutional court, which ruled that as a deputy IGG, Raphael Baku didn’t have the mandate to try them.

The court further ruled that cancelling their bail by the Magistrate’s Court because of committal to the High Court was also unconstitutional. And just like that, the matter that needed appointment of a substantial IGG died on technicalities.

Only Prof Gilbert Bukenya went to Luzira over CHOGM. The CHOGM drama cost Uganda Shs 500 billion, the biggest amount of which was stolen. What about Jim Muhwezi and Mike Mukula who were accused of helping themselves with HIV/Aids and malaria patients money under Global Fund and GAVI?

I think you have forgotten their story the same way you don’t remember the Shs 169 billion given to businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba. Recently, Basajjabalaba had come for more. He wanted to be given Shs 40 billion for losing the city abattoir.

semugs@yahoo.com

The author is Kira Municipality MP and opposition chief whip in parliament.

Nb

Of course the banks that this government and its parliament constantly borrow millions of shillings knows how attractive corruption is. It certainly gives out this money at its own peril. Unless the wiser banks start to demand for the security of these loans. Such is standard banking procedure to try and recover money before banks lend out any more money.

 

 

 

 

 

Dokita mu ddwaliro e Busoga akubye mukozi munne oluyi nga bakola emirimu gye ddwaliro:

By Musasi wa Bukedde

 

Added 23rd July 2018

 

NNANSI owoolubuto olukulu mu ddwaaliro ly’e Kamuli ekkulu mu disitulikiti y’e Kamuli addukidde ku CPS e Kamuli n’aloopa mukama we, dokita, eyamupaccizza empi bbiri ez’amaanyi bwe baabadde bakola emirimu mu ssweeta.

 

Longo 703x422

Nangobi nnansi eyakubiddwa. Ku ddyo ye Dr. Daaki

 

Sarah Nangobi, 28, omuzaalisa ye yaloopye akulira eddwaaliro lino Dr. Stephen Daaki nti yamukubye ng’amulanga kulagajjalira omulwadde gwe yabadde yaakalongoosa.

Ekyamuwalirizza okuloopa bwe bulumi bw’awulira mu kibegabega era nga n’omugongo gumuluma, ng’ate ali lubuto lukulu.

N’ekirala nga bw’ali omuntu omukulu kyamuyisizza bubi era yafunye n’okutya era n’ekitiiibwa ky’amukendeddeko olw’okumuyisaamu empi ng’omwana.

Omusango yaguloopye ku CPS e Kamuli mu ofi isi enoonyereza ku buzzi bw’emisango, era poliisi yatandise okunoonyereza wadde nga tennaba kukwata dokita ono. Agamba nti yali akola ku balwadde kyokka dokita n’amutabukira nti yagayaaliridde omulwadde eyabadde yaakalongoosebwa ng’azze n’engulu.

Omwogezi wa Poliisi mu kitundu kya Busoga North, Michael Kasadha yakakasizza ng’omusango bwe gwaloopeddwa n’agamba nti bakyanoonyereza kwe kyavudde.

 

NNAMUKUBYE LWA BUGAYAAVU - DOKITA

 

Bukedde bwe yatuukiridde Dr. Daaki mu ofi isi ye ku Lwokutaano, yagambye nti, naye awulira ηηambo nti gw’akulira yamuwawaabidde.

Teyeegaanyi kya kumukuba, wabula yabuuzzizza oba kiba kya buvunaanyizibwa omulwadde amaze okulongoosebwa ng’azze n’engulu, okumuleka ng’abooyaanira ku katanda ng’omusawo eyandimusindise mu kagaali amutwale mu woodi talabikako, ali mu bibye!

Nb

Sebo dokitari va kukuba bano bemukola nabo emirimu. Eddwaliro lya bantu ba Uganda lyebasasulira omusolo ennaku zino oguyitiridde obungi tebasasula basawo nga gwe kukuba bano bokola nabo empi. Eddwaliro sirya Kitawo oba nyoko. Omukyala ono bwaba takola mirimu gye bulungi, olina kukola report eri aba Administration be ddwaliro. Bwoba tosobola mulimu guleke abagusobola bagukole. Kakati bwanakusinga nga bwakuwabide mu court, ani agenda okusasula okumuliwa. Ffe abawi bomusolo nga nawe mwoli?

 

Katulabe ekibiina kyabakyala ekiwolereza abakazi bonna munsi eno kyekinakola kunsonga eno! Kubanga governmenti ya M7 eya NRM erina abakyala bangi ddala mubifo ebyobukulembeze.

 

Wano Obote bweyaleetera ba nurse ba Uganda 1963 number zebalina okwambala mukifo kyokukayana ebitajja kuggwa balekulira emirimu nebeyongerayo kumirimu gyebaali bayinza okusobola. Teyakwata kiboko nga abakazi abaddugavu, nabakuba kiboko nempi.

 

 

 

 

 

The Uganda Revenue Authority has decided to write off Shs 400bn in govt tax arrears because the NRM government can never pay up its debts of 32 years in power:

April 6, 2018

Written by URN

Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has said it will write off Shs 417 billion in tax arrears owed by government as bad debts.

This was revealed by the commissioner general, Doris Akol, who was on Thursday presented URA's budget estimates for the financial year 2018/2019 before the finance committee of parliament. Akol said the money had accumulated over a long period of time.

URA commissioner general Doris Akol

Akol said URA registered a 14.85% decline in government payments. She appealed to the ministry of Finance to have the figure of Shs 400 billion taken away from their revenue collection target, saying government has failed to pay this money.

 

Akol said this makes it appear like URA has a big revenue shortfall. She says URA has been stopped from collecting tax from some entities like Uganda Telecom (Utl), over fears that the telecom company could collapse.

"We have arrears which we have been trying to collect but government has told us, if you collect this tax, the telecom will go down," Akol says.

Early this year, President Museveni ordered government not to recover Shs 200 billion of Utl's debts. He instead ordered that the debts be converted into shares for the government. 

On last year's performance, Akol said the net revenue collected is Shs 6 trillion, which puts the tax authority at a performance of up to 95.12%.

Last year, the tax body recovered Shs 131 billion in debts, and also registered an increase in the taxpayer register which according to Akol, grew by 169,237 tax payers. Akol says this represents a 16% growth in registration with a total of so far 1,196,994 tax payers registered.

Rubanda East MP Henry Musaasizi, lashed out at the government for making unrealistic tax decisions like exemptions which have affected revenue collection. He said that some policies by the government made it hard for URA to generate enough revenue to support the country's small budget.

David Bahati, the state minister of Finance for Planning, told MPs that the ministry was supportive of URA saying that some exemptions were meant to ensure more investments into the country, but also helping out in times of crisis.

URA projects to collect Shs 16 trillion next financial year. Of this, the tax revenue is Shs 15 billion and non-tax revenue will be Shs 420 billion. The tax body has been allocated Shs 331 billion for next financial year compared to this financial year when it was allocated Shs 390 billion. URA has a funding gap of Shs 100 billion.

Nb

Indeed this is the sort of President Julius Nyerere's economic academic brands(African socialism) that was always taught in the University of Tanzania in the 1950/60s. The same aspect was being taught in Israel!

 

 

 

 

 

One of the many hydro-electric dams Uganda and China are building on the Equator without any care for a mass Solar Energy Project for the poor Africans to afford.

The Extravagant President of Uganda cannot easily stop the wastages he has built up all over the country:

Written by Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda

 

Our revolutionary ruler, Gen Yoweri Museveni, has proposed three significant policy reversals in the last couple of days.

First, he wrote to parliament stopping processing of 10 requests by his government to borrow money. He then proposed merging and closure of some of the parastatals, commissions and state agencies. Third, he wants unnecessary travels abroad reduced.

Because of the many bad things that he routinely does, Museveni makes it difficult for anyone sensible to thank him for a one-off good thing.

But as someone who has written and spoken against wastage of taxpayers’ money, let me welcome this stunt, if for not anything else, at least for its face value.

In a March 2016 report on public debt, the ministry of Finance revealed that we had, as of December 2015, borrowed $9.67 billion both from foreign and domestic sources. This is more than one-third of our reported $27 billion GDP.

I have not looked at the March 2017 report on loans. I think we must be approaching half our GDP, beyond which the debt will become unsustainable. And I am quoting official figures.

Therefore, any proposal to scale down on borrowing, even if it is for cosmetic reasons, is welcome. Mind you, it is ordinary Ugandans who will repay these loans when the revolutionary is long gone.

Having failed on many core issues such as health, education, accountability and good governance, Mr Museveni wants to shield his incompetence with mainly roads and electricity.

We have advised this government to scale down on borrowing to no avail. Look, we currently produce 862MW of electricity and we consume just about 600MW at peak hours. This means we have a surplus. But we have borrowed nearly Shs 3 trillion from China to build Karuma and Ayago dams.

Granted, we need to plan for the future, but in a planned and sequenced manner. Already, we are paying nearly Shs 60 billion for the surplus energy that we are not using. Investors are charging us for electricity produced and not consumed.

Wait when the Chinese begin charging us for the nearly 800MW to be generated by the new dams. Why, for example, didn’t we borrow to build Ayago and then, seven years later, borrow to build Karuma or build it using money from our oil?

We have borrowed for all sorts of things including smaller amounts to build education centres of excellence and establishment of a model farming village in Karamoja. These are things we should finance using locally-raised revenue.

Museveni told us during the budget reading that our debt is sustainable. He now wants us to stop useless borrowing. Let us look at travels.

Last financial year, Uganda spent Shs 111.8 billion on travels abroad (tickets and per diem) and Shs 240.8 billion on travels within the country. Under State House and the President’s Office, travel abroad amounted to nearly Shs 40 billion.

We spent Shs 104 billion on workshops and seminars. We spent Shs 150 billion on fuel, Shs 99 billion on vehicle repairs and Shs 184 billion on replacing vehicles that had aged.

That is why I proposed a zero-fleet policy like it was in Rwanda at one time and I am still waiting for an opportunity to present my motion in parliament.

The gist of my proposal was that besides the president, vice president, speaker of parliament, deputy speaker, leader of opposition, chief justice and deputy chief justice, the rest of public servants should be given loans to buy tax-free vehicles of their choice. The money should be recovered from their allowances and salaries.

If adopted, we will not spend the billions on fuel, drivers, repairs and purchases. I hope I will be allowed to present this proposal at one stage.

In Tanzania, it has worked. There was a time we travelled to Rwanda for the East African parliament’s sports gala and Tanzania didn’t show up. Reason, their new president, John Pombe Magufuli, had said there was no money for leisurely travels.

I understand Magufuli even halted celebrations to mark the country’s independence, preferring to use the money to construct a road in Dar es Salaam. This is what is called acting by example.

In the case of Uganda, Mr Museveni, who is fighting useless expenditure, still employs 1,600 staff at his residence and in his office. The number of presidential advisors – by the way these are idle people – is now at 141. There is even an advisor on Kigezi diocese! Really!

Each year, Mr Museveni allocates himself about Shs 90 billion for donation, which is the reason these days he is randomly stopping at every roadside market or workshop to donate to vendors.

It is a very good idea to merge parastatals, but it will change nothing if the big man continues creating districts, municipalities, ministries, etc.

On page 68 of its August 2016 report, the Electoral Commission reveals that the country now has 2,286,158 elective offices to fill.

These elections cost money, but the offices need more money to run. But because many of these offices are filled by Museveni supporters and they help him stay in power, he is speaking only against parastatals.

Merging parastatals and reducing on borrowing and travels abroad are too good proposals, but they can’t mean anything under Museveni’s extravagant leadership.

semugs@yahoo.com

The author is Kira Municipality MP and spokesperson of the Forum for Democratic Change.

The Uganda Parliament wants an inquiry into the sale of 130 public companies by the NRM government of 30 years rule:

  

  

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

There is the 1960s old building of the Uganda Commercial Bank that is an eyesore for the

Uganda tax payer!

  

The sale of UCB in the early 1990s to Stanbic Bank was and continues to generate debate to-date.

File photo  

  
By Yasiin Mugerwa

Posted  Wednesday, March 9   2016 
  

UGANDA, Kampala. Parliament is expected in the next few days to open a probe into allegations of corruption and collusion in the sale of more than 130 public assets under the controversy-ridden privatisation policy.
The inquiry seeks to establish whether there was undue political interference and other forms of manipulation in the privatisation process.
The probe committee will, among other things, track the sale and expenditure of billions of Shillings that accrued from the divesture of public companies.

The decision to investigate the dealings of the Privatisation Unit was mooted during the consideration of a new Bill that seeks to revive Uganda Development Corporation (UDC).
UDC will be an investment agency on behalf of government in partnership with the private sector to promote and facilitate industrial and economic development.
Government in the 1990s implemented the divestiture policy, as part of a wider World Bank’s economic reforms and recovery programme.
The objective was to reduce the direct role of government participation in the economy and develop a greater role for the private sector.

Some MPs attempted to block the passing of the UDC Bill last week, but Speaker Rebecca Kadaga guided that the new law be passed and a select committee on privatisation instituted tomorrow to dig up the details.
MPs had demanded full information on public assets formerly placed under Uganda Development Company.
A list of the assets and companies tabled before Parliament by Mr Michael Werikhe, the State minister for Industry, shows that more than 130 properties were sold to undisclosed Ugandans and foreigners.

Establishing status
However, MPs led by Opposition Chief Whip, Ms Cecilia Ogwal and Mr Eddie Kwizera of Bufumbira East demanded latest (ownership) information and the (sale) values for each of the 134 companies.
“We want to revive UDC but how much did we get from the sale of all these assets? Where is the money? What is the status?” Ms Ogwal said.
However, Mr Werikhe said people from the Finance ministry would “give us this information because they are the ones who know what happened”.
Mr Jim Mugunga, the Ministry of Finance spokesperson, said they had nothing to hide as “we have made disclosures to the Auditor General and those who bought public assets are known. If they want to know what happened the report is in Parliament”.

The inquiry, confirmed by the Parliament director of communications and public affairs, Mr Chris Obore, is expected to focus on the disputed sale of public enterprises such as Entebbe Handling Services, Uganda Commercial Bank, Uganda Grain Millers, Hima Cement, Nile Hotel, Apollo Hotel, Uganda Air Cargo and Steel Corporation of East Africa, among others.
Although most of the MPs have backed the planned inquiry, some have expressed fears that the current Parliament is unlikely to complete the probe of this stature, since its five-year term ends in May.

However, the unfinished work of the 9th Parliament can be re-introduced in the 10th Parliament by a resolution.
If Parliament votes to institute the select committee tomorrow, it will not be the first time the House is investigating allegations of corruption in the privatisation deals.
The late Tom Aisu Omongole (Kumi), in the 6th Parliament led a similar inquiry that investigated the fraud in the sale of Uganda Commercial Bank and other privatisation deals.
The 60-page report claimed that four ministers and one senior official had “derailed” the exercise.

The 1998 report uncovered the rot in the divestiture process and named Mr Sam Kutusa, Gen Salim Saleh, Mr Mathew Rukikaire, Mr John Nasasira, Mr Mayanja Nkangi and other government officials have also meddled in the sale of these public companies.
The ministers, however, denied the accusations but the report led to the resignation of Mr Rukikaire as State minister for Privatisation at the time because of his handling of the divestiture of (Apollo Hotel) now Sheraton Kampala Hotel and UCB.

  

Nb:

Surely a modern Commercial Bank cannot function in such a single outdated building any more. What of its branches that need to spread out throughout this country of 2016?

  

  

  

Some of the sold Assets are as follows:

1. Uganda Commercial Bank (UCB)

2. Stanbic Bank (U) Ltd

3. Uganda Telecom

4. Bank of Baroda

5. Uganda Telecom

6. UGM Co 7. Total (U) Ltd

8. Agricultural Enterprises Ltd

9. NEC Pharmaceuticals Ltd

10. Uganda Fisheries Enterprises

11. Uganda Industrial Machinery

12. Associated Match Company

13. Uganda Libyan Arab Holdings

14. Steel Corporation of EA Ltd

15. Rwenzori Highland Tea Co

16. Cable Corporation 17. DFU Bank

18. New Vision P&P (20%)

19. Uganda Clays Ltd

20. Dairy Corporation Ltd

21. National Insurance Company

22. Mweya Safari Lodge

23. Nile Hotel International Ltd

24. Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd

25. Second National Operator

26. Uganda Railway Corporation

27. Uganda Electricity Distribution Co

28. Uganda Electricity Generation

29. Uganda Seeds (Kasese)

30. Uganda Seeds (Masindi)

31. ULI Ltd- Kiryana Ranch

32. ULI Ltd-Kyempisi Ranch

33. Foods and Beverages Ltd

34. Fresh Foods Lts

35. Republic Motors

36. Winits (U) Ltd

37. Govt Central Purchasing Corp

38. Printpak (U) Ltd

39.Uganda Hardware Ltd

40. Uganda Motors

41. NH&CC 42. Shell (U) Ltd

43. Nile Breweries Ltd

44. Uganda American Insurance Co

45. Uganda Crane Estates

46. Uganda Securiko Ltd

47. Uganda Tea Corporation

48. Kampala Auto Centre Gomba M

49. Transocean 1998 (U) Ltd

50. Barclays Bank of Uganda Ltd

51. BAT Uganda 52. ENHAS

53. Kakira Sugar Works

54. Uganda Spinning Mills, Lira

55. Agip (U) Ltd 56. White Rhino Hotel

57. White Horse Inn

58. Comrade Cycles (U) Ltd

59. Lango Development Corp

60. Uganda Meat Packers (Kampala)

61. Uganda Leather and Tanning Ind.

62. Uganda Meat packers (Soroti)

63. African Textile Mills

64. TUMPECO 65. SAIMM CO

66. Apollo Hotel Corporation Ltd

67. Blenders (U) Ltd

68. East African Distilleries

69. Acholi Inn

70. Kibimba Rice Co Ltd

71. Lake Victoria Bottling Co Ltd

72. Kinyara Sugar Works Ltd

73. Lango Development Co

74. Motocraft and Sales Ltd

75. NIC Ltd 76. African Ceramics Co

77. Hilltop Hotel

78. Hotel Margherita

79. ITV Sales

80. Lira Hotel

81. Masindi Hotel

82. Mt Elgon Hotel

83. Mt Moroto Hotel

84. NYTIL Textile Industries

85. Rock Hotel

86. Uganda Cement Ind- Hima

87. Uganda Cement Ind-Tororo

88. Soroti Hotel

89. Uganda Consolidated Properties

90. Uganda Garment Industries

  

Nelson Mandela: The USA CIA tip-off led to 1962 Durban arrest:


Nelson Mandela died in 2013 at the age of 95

Nelson Mandela's arrest in 1962 came as a result of a tip-off from an agent of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a report says.

The revelations, made in the Sunday Times newspaper, are based on an interview with ex-CIA agent Donald Rickard shortly before he died.

Mandela served 27 years in jail for resisting white minority rule before being released in 1990.

He was subsequently elected as South Africa's first black president.

Rickard, who died earlier this year, was never formally associated with the CIA but worked as a diplomat in South Africa before retiring in the late 70s.

The interview was conducted by British film director John Irvin, who has made a film, Mandela's Gun, about his brief career as an armed rebel, the Sunday Times said.

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Murky events: Karen Allen, BBC Southern Africa Correspondent, Johannesburg

The events leading up the the arrest of Nelson Mandela, on a dark night near Durban in 1962, have always been murky. In the era of Cold War politics, Mandela, then leader of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), was considered a terrorist and a threat to the West.

As Mr Rickard put it, he was "the most dangerous communist" outside of the Soviet Union, although Mandela always denied being a member of the party.

Rumours have circulated for years that the CIA trailed Mandela but the agency resisted previous attempts to shine a light on its alleged involvement in his arrest. Rickard's admission will bring renewed pressure to declassify documents from the time.

The ANC's spokesman Zizi Kodwa said he believed the CIA was still meddling in South African affairs and collaborating with those wanting "regime change".

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The future president led the armed resistance movement of the banned ANC, and was one of the most wanted men in South Africa at the time of his arrest.

His ability to evade the security services had earned him the nickname "the black Pimpernel".

He was posing as a chauffeur when his car was stopped at a roadblock by the police in the eastern city of Durban in 1962 and he was detained.

"I found out when he was coming down and how he was coming... that's where I was involved and that's where Mandela was caught," Rickard is quoted as saying.

Nelson Mandela's fake passport under the alias of David MotsamayiImage copyrightNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF SOUTH AFRICA
Image captionA fake passport in the name of David Motsamayi used by Mr Mandela

ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said: "That revelation confirms what we have always known, that they are working against [us], even today.

"It's not thumb sucked, it's not a conspiracy [theory]. It is now confirmed that it did not only start now, there is a pattern in history."

Mandela, president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, was on a US terror watch list until 2008.

Before that, along with other former ANC leaders, he was only able to visit the US with special permission from the secretary of state, because the ANC had been designated a terrorist organisation by the former apartheid government.

US President George W Bush (R) meets Nelson Mandela in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington DC on 17 May 2005Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionMr Mandela needed special permission to enter the US until 2008

The bill scrapping the designation was introduced by Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who promised to "wipe away" the

"indignity".

President Ronald Reagan had originally placed the ANC on the list in the 1980s.

The Head of the Uganda Tax Body

The Uganda Revenue Authoritiy is struggling to administer a well balanced tax system on the continent of Africa.

By The Independent

Posted: July 25, 2016 

 

By Andrew M. Mwenda

 

Uganda’s ratio of taxes to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has remained almost stagnant for 19 years. In 1997, it was 11%. Since then it has risen to 13.7% only to fall back to 12%. This is in spite of the fact that over this period, monetary GDP has increased from 76% to 94% and taxable GPD from 52% to 81% today. Last financial year, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) collected Shs 11.3 trillion in taxes against a GDP of Shs 86 trillion as per June 30th. This means that the tax to GDP ratio is now 12%.

I suspect URA collects about 67% of taxes due. I am aware that as a poor country with a low industrial base, Uganda’s economy is dominated by multitudes of small family businesses that are difficult to tax. Yet I still think that with prudent tax laws and administration URA can collect about 18% of GDP in taxes i.e. an extra Shs 4.2 trillion.

In 1970, the tax to GDP ratio in Uganda was 22%. This was in large part because government was taxing especially agricultural exports. Today Uganda exempts all agriculture from taxation. Even large scale ranchers like President Yoweri Museveni with 21 square miles of land and 5,000 heads of cattle making about Shs500 million as monthly income are exempt. Yet in spite of this, agricultural growth in Uganda has been the most sluggish, averaging about 2.9% per year over the last 20 years. But this article is about improving tax administration not broadening the tax base.

There is no incentive to reform URA’s tax collection methods because both businessmen and URA officials benefit from it through corruption.

I know many business persons in Uganda doing import and export trade (corporation tax), real estate and other informal trades that make a lot of money but don’t pay any taxes at all. Indeed, the biggest mistake for a business in Uganda is to be compliant and honest like this newspaper has done for the last nine years. If a business has a tax dispute with URA, its officials have no incentive to resolve it.

For example, The Independent got into a minor tax dispute with URA in 2012. URA has conducted four audits without resolving the matter. Every friend has told me to bribe URA officials to end this dispute. I have refused because we have been totally compliant. Instead of getting acknowledgement, URA officials have spent four years looking for a fault. Why would URA spend so much of its time on a company that is largely compliant when it is saddled with tens of thousands who are not? It will become obvious later on.

For now, like many things in poor countries, the tax law in Uganda is copied and pasted from “best practice” in the developed nations of Western Europe and North America. It does not reflect the unique features of our reality. For example most businesses in Uganda begin as informal trades that grow with time. At a certain size they need to go formal so that they can scale and even tender for big government contracts or borrow from banks, all of which requires a tax compliance certificate from URA.

The main challenge facing URA is how to make such businesses find it easy to become compliant. Part of doing this means opening their books to URA for the last five years. This makes them vulnerable to huge tax arrears and penalties, enough to bankrupt them. The choice is to remain small (which many do) or bribe URA officials to reduce the tax liability. In short, URA has created an incentive structure where one is penalised for being compliant and another is rewarded for avoiding it or for paying a bribe.

Many business people keep their transactions informal in order to avoid the adverse impact of taxes on their businesses.

One reason for poor compliance is that URA does not have the resources to send teams to register every business or income stream. However, the major reason is that URA officials are lazy and corrupt. They are lazy because they are not keen to go and establish the different streams of income from which to generate more taxes. They are corrupt because they profit individually from noncompliance.

In my many unhappy encounters with URA officials, I have pleaded with them to be vanguards of change. I ask them to inform their superiors that the tax law as designed is the biggest impediment to tax compliance. My pleas fall on deaf ears. I have asked business people to use the different associations to lobby for tax reform and my efforts have yielded only derision and disinterest. Then my mind’s eyes opened to me something subtle – corruption. Only two (a lady and gentleman) who came to my office last week exhibited a keen interest in how to make many people compliant.

Many business people keep their transactions informal in order to avoid the adverse impact of taxes on their businesses. This is because URA officials visit these businesses to audit them in order to collect government taxes. Looking strictly at the law, the interests of the business people and URA officials are in conflict. Yet at the level of unofficial practice, they are actually consonant especially given the structure of incentives Uganda’s tax law engenders. I realised that this conflict between the taxpayer and the tax collector is resolved to their mutual benefit through corruption.

URA officials can show up and audit a business and issue the owner a huge tax bill – say of Shs5.6 billion on tax arrears for five years including fines and compound interest. Terrified that such a bill would bankrupt his or her company, the business person will offer to pay a bribe of Shs300 million to URA officials if they can cut down the bill to Shs1.2 billion. Thus the law offers both taxpayer and tax collector joint gains through corruption. The businessperson saves Shs 4.1 billion in taxes and URA officials pocket Shs300 million.

Over time, dealing with both URA and business persons, I have learnt the consequences of this collusion. The obvious one is that government loses tax revenue in such deals, a factor that limits its ability to serve its citizens. But the more subtle and even dangerous consequence is to URA as a government institution and to the business community as vanguards of tax reform.

Bribes demobilise business people from organising collectively to pursue tax reform. Instead business persons find it cheaper and more convenient to bribe URA officials. Government secures the acquiescence of individual business persons for tax laws that are collectively harmful to business generally. And for URA officials, bad tax law allows them to line their pockets. Within Uganda’s polity, hardly anyone has an incentive to reform the system.

***

amwenda@independent.co.ug