On the main road from Mulago to Kamwokya is where Operation Wealth Creation is now headquartered. In an earlier article, I told you that Operation Wealth Creation is an illegal outfit established through an executive order from State House, which has since expired.
Because of its legal status, Operation Wealth Creation couldn’t access money. But through trickery, National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads), whose budget averages about Shs 450 billion a year, was asked to surrender Shs 270 billion to Saleh’s Wealth Creation circus.
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I also told you that more than Shs 70 billion of its now Shs 270 billion annual budget was used to buy vehicles for retired military generals who had just been recruited and trained to serve under Saleh.
I did not know that millions of this money would also be used to rent a posh office for Operation Wealth Creation. The abuse of people’s taxes and power by the Museveni family is very annoying.
Govt has made corruption attractive
Because of its legal status, Operation Wealth Creation couldn’t access money. But through trickery, National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads), whose budget averages about Shs 450 billion a year, was asked to surrender Shs 270 billion to Saleh’s Wealth Creation circus.
I also told you that more than Shs 70 billion of its now Shs 270 billion annual budget was used to buy vehicles for retired military generals who had just been recruited and trained to serve under Saleh.
I did not know that millions of this money would also be used to rent a posh office for Operation Wealth Creation. The abuse of people’s taxes and power by the Museveni family is very annoying.
Govt has made corruption attractive
October 17, 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.
Kamwokya is the reason Museveni family loves power
https://observer.ug/viewpoint/58881-kamwokya-is-the-reason-museveni-family-loves-power
The Observer has a new neighbour to whom I will return later. When The Observer migrated from Ruth Towers on Clement Hill to Tagore Crescent, Mariandina clinic was one of the features we used for direction. “Do you know where Mariandina clinic is?” we would ask before advising our clients to walk or drive past it and then, “you will see our signpost.” This clinic is no longer there.
The fate that affects many black people’s businesses has befallen it – closure after the death of its founder. Dr Charles Ssali of the Mariandina clinic became famous in the 1990s when he claimed he had discovered a cure for HIV/Aids patients. The state clamped down on him when he refused to disclose details of his new drug.
The other neighbour to The Observer, the Uganda Women’s Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO), founded by our dear First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni, is no longer as vibrant as it was.
UWESO is The Observer’s immediate neighbour. Its activities no longer attract huge media coverage like before. I tried to do some research about the organisation over the internet and the recent information I got was that Shs 1 billion had been raised during a fundraising at State House in April 2017.
President Museveni was the chief fundraiser and gave UWESO Shs 300 million. I think I will ask Mama Janet the next time I see her in parliament to talk about UWESO and what really happened.
The last information I had heard about it was that it had refused to account for some donations. When donors asked for accountability, the founder demanded to know from them if they suspected her. The donors pulled out and maybe that is the reason this neighbour to The Observer remains largely quiet.
Let me return to The Observer’s new neighbour - Operation Wealth Creation - at this stage. As you all know about Operation Wealth Creation, it is headed by Gen Caleb Akandwanaho, mostly known as Salim Saleh, President Yoweri Museveni’s young brother.
On the main road from Mulago to Kamwokya is where Operation Wealth Creation is now headquartered. In an earlier article, I told you that Operation Wealth Creation is an illegal outfit established through an executive order from State House, which has since expired.
Because of its legal status, Operation Wealth Creation couldn’t access money. But through trickery, National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads), whose budget averages about Shs 450 billion a year, was asked to surrender Shs 270 billion to Saleh’s Wealth Creation circus.
I also told you that more than Shs 70 billion of its now Shs 270 billion annual budget was used to buy vehicles for retired military generals who had just been recruited and trained to serve under Saleh.
I did not know that millions of this money would also be used to rent a posh office for Operation Wealth Creation. The abuse of people’s taxes and power by the Museveni family is very annoying. But this article is not about that.
It is essentially about the failure by the Museveni family to successfully run any private enterprise. It is not a secret anymore that the wife didn’t find her effort to save orphans (UWESO) either rewarding or sufficient.
She jumped into politics to represent the people of Ruhaama, got appointed Karamoja minister and now she heads the education docket, one of the ministries with the biggest budgets.
For me who knows that she illegally joined Makerere University for her Bachelor of Education degree, I thank the Almighty for having enabled me to go through school before she was appointed.
The point I make here is that even if UWESO still exists, it has no activities to speak for her. Maybe it now operates like a security outfit. Salim Saleh founded Divinity Union and at one time traded in cereals.
But I think even this one folded. Maybe a fundraising at State House, at which Museveni will be the chief fundraiser, will resuscitate it.
You need no expertise to know why this family loves the state and power. Mr Museveni himself speaks proudly about his farms but all his employees are paid for by the state. The farms’ veterinary doctor is a senior presidential advisor on veterinary and that is how he picks his monthly salary.
In fact, I laugh each time I see Museveni teaching people how to work. I am willing to issue a public apology if someone tells me a private enterprise this family has successfully run without using taxpayers’ money.
Why then shouldn’t they celebrate Uganda’s 56th independence anniversary. Isn’t Uganda their private enterprise?
Uganda not yet at take-off stage of development
October 17, 2018
Written by HAROLD KAIJA
I heard you tell your bazzukulu at the “fireplace” in Entebbe on Sunday that Uganda is at Rostow’s third stage of development. Really? With 22 million Ugandans still in poverty; with three per cent annual budget allocation to agriculture; with a Shs 41 trillion national debt; with 67 per cent youth unemployment.
This prompted me to go check my Senior Six notes to verify if that was true.
My finds are as follows:
STAGE I: TRADITIONAL
Characterised by low production in the economy, subsistence production, with the largest proportion of labour engaged in agriculture, traditions play an important role in resource allocation and social organization.
What is the reality? You have in subsequent communication indicated that 68 per cent of Ugandans are in subsistance production, which is hand-to-mouth production. They use traditional means of production; that is, physical muscle, hoes, pangas, etc.
Through NAADS, peasants are given a cup of beans and maize, while the lucky ones like Ofwono Opondo get a goat or cow.
During the 2016 general elections, your prime minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, distributed hand hoes in West Nile to “boost” agriculture. The land tenure system is still a big issue if we are to go by the testimonies in the Bamugemereire land commission. With that background, there is still limited production.
It is, therefore, not accurate to say that Uganda is at take-off stage of development where 68 per cent of the population are peasants!!
STAGE 2: PRECONDITIONS TO TAKE-OFF
Society breaks ties of traditions and changes attitudes; there is a rise in investment to about five per cent of national income, entrepreneurs appear, investment directed towards overheads like railway, roads, electricity, education and health.
Today, most of the country’s national income is spent on you (State House and Presidents Office) and defense as your priority areas. The key sectors that should boost the economy take the back seat.
Currently when one falls sick, he/ she is referred to a hospital outside Uganda. (In year 2015/16, more than Shs1.8 trillion was spent on treating senior government officials abroad, which money would have boosted this economy if spent in Uganda).
On education, the universities which should have been centers of research are ill facilitated to provide knowledge that would fix our country’s problems.
You talked about over supply of electricity. In basic economics, we are taught that when supply goes up, automatically prices go down. This is not the case with your electricity. About 23 per cent of Ugandans have access to electricity and a huge fraction of those who have access can’t afford the bills.
You talked about the constructed roads. You should be aware that in most parts of the country, the roads are still in a sorry state. Uganda’s roads are narrow with many potholes.
STAGE 3: TAKE-OFF
The economy is characterised by the following: increase in investment from five to 10 per cent of national income; appearance with one or more substantial sectors with high growth; introduction of new technology; change in social, political and institutional framework to aid spread of development; expanding market and plough-back of profit.
What is the reality? What we see is a supermarket economy with arcades selling goods that Uganda does not produce.
If you sat or drove on Jinja road, you will see heavy trucks moving at a snail pace coming to Uganda and see empty running trucks heading the opposite direction. This is an indication of more imports than exports.
About 67 per cent of the youth are unemployed, putting them in the demand equation, hence reducing the market size. You talk about a huge market, but that market is seen by the ability to pay for what they demand.
So, the majority of Uganda’s population can’t translate into a market because the majority have no jobs. Those who have jobs have little disposable income to spend. Low disposable income leads to low demand, low saving and investment.
Jajja, we are swinging between the traditional stage and the preconditions to take-off. The economy is still a dependent economy with no clear-defined economic model.
The interest rate of more than 20 per cent is the highest in the region, which makes it expensive to acquire capital and compete. Your taxes are anti-business and anti-investment.
With the adoption of the mobile money tax, in an economy where about 4 million out of the 40 million Ugandans have active bank accounts, we are going back to the cash economy where people keep money in pots.
The country doesn’t have a middle-class to be proud of. It’s a group of under-employed people, who survive on hand-to-mouth, and depend on bribes and corruption. This has limited their capacity to drive Uganda to its dream of taking off.