Photo: Twitter
In 1980, soon after the fall of Idi Amin, Yoweri Museveni accused then president Godfrey Biniasa’s Statehouse of being a “clearinghouse for pro-forma invoices.”
Today, Uganda parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has begun looking into how 124.367 billion Uganda shillings (about $30 million) was diverted by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to finance other road activities that were not planned for.
According to the Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2020/2021, the diverted funds were meant for 27 road projects. The Auditor General noted UNRA diverted 1.812 billion Shillings of the 3.885 billion Shillings for the upgrading of the 104km Atiak-Moyo-Afoji road.
Other funds diverted were 14.317 billion Shillings of the 16.335 billion shillings that were released for the improvement of ferry services. It also diverted 5.552 billion Shillings for the 191km upgrade project of the Rwenkunye-Apac-Lira-Acholibur road. UNRA also mischarged 22.563 billion Shillings meant for the design of the 72km Mukono-Katosi-Nyenga Road.
In what promises to be yet another storm in Corruption-ville (aka Museveni’s junta), these monies seem to have vanished into “thin air”: normally found between the ears of the leaders in Uganda.
Allen Kagina, the UNRA Executive Director, admitted to diverting the funds to unauthorized projects beyond the 10% threshold that the Public Finance Act gives the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to approve such a diversion.
Having confessed to this crime, we can bet that nothing shall be done to Kagina, who formerly worked at State House is an NRM cadre, or those who are involved in such malfeasance.
Instead, Gen. Museveni is likely to come out with all his bluster to say: “Key culprit is myself. I’m here, am abundant here, let me see who can dare touch me,” just as he did when caught with his pants down over the irregular agreement between the government and the Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited.
If you recall, in February this year, the minister of Finance and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija (yes, him again), signed an agreement with, Enrica Pinetti, an Italian investor to construct an $80 million coffee processing factory in Uganda.
The coffee agreement was virulently opposed by Ugandans involved in the coffee value chain, saying it was bad for Ugandan farmers. Parliament backed them up by passing a resolution urging the government to dump the agreement because it grants Vinci (read Gen. Museveni) a monopoly to exporting Uganda’s coffee.
This is obviously bad for Uganda, but good for the Museveni junta.
The latter has made it a point to keep peculating the country’s financial resources under the guise of adding value to the actual value it seeks to take away from the Ugandan economy.
This is because Gen. Museveni’s vampiric regime is essentially built on two pillars: patronage and corruption.
The two fuel one another as money which is stolen is diverted towards rewarding cronies, buying off opponents and thereby creating an edifice which stands as a roadblock to the country’s development.
Interestingly, as corruption becomes a subsystem in Uganda, growth figures reflect progress. That’s because growth is defined as “an increase in the production of economic goods and services in one period of time compared with a previous period.”
Growth is occasioned by two factors: growth in the size of the workforce and growth in the productivity (output per hour worked) of that workforce, these increase per capita GDP and income.
What’s wrong with that, you ask?
Well, Museveni’s junta increases the workforce by creating a captive labour market in which the workers make just enough money to be broke. As they earn starvation wages, growth figures reflect employment but not whether that employment is gainful.
So, as the Ugandan worker becomes poorer, that worker needs to work even harder (like the Horse “Boxer” in George Orwell’s Animal Farm). There is no time for meaningful political engagement of or effective opposition to the Museveni Junta.
This is why Ugandans have been reduced to merely abusing Gen. Museveni on social media while he gets away with stealing government funds and turning statehouse into “clearinghouse for pro-forma invoices.”
