KIRUMIRA'S CASE IS SO UNFORTUNATE

Kirumira in Court

The way Kirumira got money gives a clue on how some people get money from Government .------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kirumira money returned to Kiruhura

Kampala tycoon Godfrey Kirumira has reportedly returned to the Kiruhura district bank account the Shs 190m that he had allegedly fraudulently obtained. Kirumira, managing director of Bargery Trading Company, was yesterday questioned by police for diverting the district’s unused money unto his account at Bank of Baroda. The tycoon collapsed under police questioning, and failed to complete or sign his statement. Police sources say that even before reporting back to Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters at Kibuli, Kampala, today morning, Kirumira had already deposited all the Shs 190m back to where it belonged. “It seems he either deposited the money at night or early morning because it was already there before he came to complete his statement in morning”, said a police source. However, sources say police will press ahead with their investigations. Detectives were also planning to question Bank of Baroda staff who facilitated the earlier money transfer. It is not clear how the money ended up on Kirumira’s account. Yesterday, CID boss Grace Akullo said: “Kirumira diverted this money, which was unused in development projects for the last financial year in Kiruhura district, onto his account and he started withdrawing it in installments of Shs 125m, Shs 60m and Shs 5m.” -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EVOLUTION OF DICTATORS; A CASE OF KIIZA BESIGYE

Dear Ugandans, I think we need to be very careful. We want freedom, and all the possible Human Rights, but I don't think our peasants benefit from the current strategies of Dr. Kiiza Besigye. Mr. Besigye is arrested every time he comes out to meet the common people. What happens is that the security personnel end up following him up, holding him briefly, and eventually release him. What happens to the common people? They are dumped inot cells and they end up decaying there. Their properties are destroyed, and Besigye does not pick the bill. They lose income. Yesterday, many sustained injuries, I don't know how much Besigye has done to see these people's families better.

Many of us want a better Uganda, but surely, the strategies of Beigye may bring him fame as an individual and also earn him money from those who sponsor him, but he does not feed those he disorganizes. At the end of the day, when leaders like Besigye get power, they turn to the people claiming that they sacrificed for them! I want Besigye to change strategies instead of making the common people suffer more. William Kituuka Kiwanuka ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Police left numb as Besigye beats heavy deployment to enter city Kampala North Police Operations Commander Sam Omala was left speechless yesterday after the Forum for Democratic Change president, Dr Kizza Besigye, beat a security cordon at his home for the second day and entered the city. Police said they are investigating reports that Dr Besigye may have used a taxi to enter the city centre before jumping into his car. The apparent ease with which he was able to leave his home was by yesterday gaining mythical proportions. Dr Besigye emerged from his car at Namirembe Road in Kampala at around midday and waved the V-sign to a chanting crowd which quickly built up around him, surprising police. The police, who have been accused of illegally restricting the movements of Dr Besigye and other opposition politicians, blocked his car and diverted him to Central Police Station where he was held before being driven to Kira Division Police Station. This is the second time he is leaving home unnoticed since the Walk to Freedom campaign started this week. On Monday, the FDC leader suddenly showed up in the city, leaving a large number of security personnel deployed on 24-hour guard outside his home in Kasangati, bewildered. Before the city fracas, police had erected roadblocks near homes of opposition leaders and were busy searching every car to make sure that they do not leave their homes. On Tuesday, Mr Omala swore that Dr Besigye will not leave his home unless he denounces the Walk to Freedom campaign: “We will not sleep. Dr Besigye will not leave his home until he denounces his plans. We will not even doze for even a minute, I swear he will not leave this house,” Mr Omala, said. Dr Besigye, who was then at his home, responded that he can leave his home any time if he so wished. When Daily Monitor yesterday asked Mr Omala how Dr Besigye slipped through his security without recanting activities related to Walk to Freedom, he declined to comment. Police left numb as Besigye beats heavy deployment to enter city The police officer was yesterday seen at CPS explaining to Kampala North Regional Police Commander Stephen Tanui how Dr Besigye beat his security. It was not immediately clear what he told Mr Tanui. However, police managed to block outlawed pressure group 4GC Coordinator Mathias Mpuuga from leaving his home in the morning. In 2001 after the chaotic presidential polls, Dr Besigye left his house in Luzira, a Kampala suburb, where he was under close surveillance, in an escape which to-date baffles security agencies. He was next seen in the United States before relocating to South Africa where he lived in exile for months. Reported by Andrew Bagala, Frederic Musisi & Dear Jeanne ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Vision Reporter Two people sustained bullet wounds during the chaotic arrest of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president, Kizza Besigye along Namirembe road on Thursday. The victims who were not identified by press time were shot in the legs by stray bullets. One of the victims is a bodaboda cyclist within the city, witnesses say. However, it is not known yet whether more people were hurt during the afternoon fracas. The FDC leader entered the city after beating security that was beefed around his home in Kasangati Thursday morning. The arrest turned chaotic with cops shooting in the air and releasing tear gas canisters to wade off 'opposition sympathisers' who were moving with Besigye. Traders who operate in several arcades downtown Kampala locked up their shops for fear of looters taking advantage of the chaos and making away with their merchandise. Besigye was later arrested and whisked off to Kampala Central Police Station. The Thursday incident almost played out like Monday's, where police clashed with some members, particularly of the opposition, including Besigye. Police early Monday deployed at the homes of Besigye, Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and Kampala central MP, Mohammed Nsereko, to block them from going to the city. The security operatives had been tipped on the intentions of the highly influential leaders. The FDC president had planned to hold a rally at the Constitutional Square in the city centre. Mayor Lukwago had his sights on touring the wiped-out New Taxi park, from where, it is said, he would meet some of his supporters. Chaos The city has been host to dramatic scenes since the start of this week where police and opposition leaders have been at loggerheads. Monday saw a number of arrests, where Besigye and Lukwago featured highly in the mix. Lukwago was arrested, released then rearrested that day. Some people along the streets are now working, uncertain of what would happen next. "I fear being in the city now because of the teargas. But since i have to work and earn some money, i cannot just stay seated at home doing nothing," a hawker in the city said. Police prior to the Monday chaotic episodes warned against staging any kind of rallies in the build-up of the jubilee festivities slated for next week, October 9.

BALANCE SHEET OF MUSEVENI'S PRESIDENCY - COMING SOON

WE NEED A NEW START IN UGANDA WHERE FIGURES CAN BE REAL AS BELOW

WHEN EVERYTHING HAS GONE WRONG ELSEWHERE, IT WOULD BE A MIRACLE IF IT WERE DIFFERENT IN URA

$480M LOST TO INSIDER FRAUD, TAX EVASION ABETTED BY URA

$480m lost to insider fraud, tax evasion at URA In Summary • The EastAfrican has obtained confidential documents that show the country lost the money in the space of five years through a web of graft and other fraudulent practices, and that some officials who seem to be either too powerful or too well connected for top management to discipline, have hijacked the powers of their superiors. • Staff members named in this racket continue to work at the tax body despite calls for investigations and an interdiction issued by Commissioner General Allen Kagina over their conduct in April last year. • URA board chairman Gerald Ssendaula confirmed that internal rackets were indeed causing tax leakages. • The gravity of the matter has now caused the Inspector General of Government to investigate how this loss was occasioned before going after the beneficiaries and culprits. Insider fraud and tax evasion syndicates at the Uganda Revenue Authority, operating with senior management’s knowledge, have cost the country close to Ush1 trillion ($480 million) in lost revenue. The EastAfrican has obtained confidential documents that show the country lost the money in the space of five years through a web of graft and other fraudulent practices, and that some officials who seem to be either too powerful or too well connected for top management to discipline, have hijacked the powers of their superiors. Staff members named in this racket continue to work at the tax body despite calls for investigations and an interdiction issued by Commissioner General Allen Kagina over their conduct in April last year. The documents of an audit reveal that a big chunk of the money — over Ush800 billion ($327 million) — was lost in fraudulent VAT deferment since 2010. VAT deferment relates to business entities that apply for its remission or those that import plant machinery and equipment, and are given a future date to pay VAT to URA’s domestic taxes department once they start producing goods and services. The audit questions the basis of this waiver, and concludes that the government lost revenue due to fraudulent clearances. e “There is no legal basis for VAT deferment. Section 40/4 of the VAT Act 1996 states that upon written application by a person liable for tax, the Commissioner General may, where good cause is shown, extend the time for payment of tax. “In regard to plant and machinery, an amendment was inserted in 2003 to the effect that, notwithstanding the dates when the tax is due, the minister may by regulation prescribe the terms and conditions of payment of tax,” one document reads, concluding that URA’s failure to follow up and collect the taxes under the deferment in question, violated Section 40/4 of the VAT Act. The documents further reveal that, while the minister had, since 2003, not issued a legal instrument to enable importers of plant machinery and equipment to benefit from VAT deferment, officials at the URA had knowingly invoked the waiver for certain importers. URA board chairman Gerald Ssendaula confirmed that internal rackets were indeed causing tax leakages. “That’s true, but we need to sit down and look at your information when I return,” said Mr Ssendaula, in a phone interview with The EastAfrican last week. However, Mr Ssendaula, a former minister of finance who assumed the chair at URA in 2010, promising to plug such leakages and widen the tax base, said information relating to beneficiaries of VAT deferment needed to be put to further scrutiny. “We need to be very sure and well informed about this one. It could be that these are concessions where the government pays on behalf of the company. We’ve also internally expressed concern, but we need to find out more,” he said. The gravity of the matter has now caused the Inspector General of Government to investigate how this loss was occasioned before going after the beneficiaries and culprits. Besides the irregular handling of the VAT postponement, another tax fraud is raising eyebrows. One Experito K. Kisekka on August 17 filed a notice at the Chief Magistrates Court, seeking to sue the URA Commissioner General. The notice accuses Ms Kagina of neglect of “her statutory duty of control and supervision of other officers and staff of Uganda Revenue Authority.” It details the cavalier manner in which the URA staff members aided 116 ineligible importers between 2008 and 2010 to benefit from tax exemption, coded as CPC 450 under the East African Community Customs Management Act. The importers brought in goods whose cost insurance and freight value was Ush734.4 billion ($300 million), attracting Ush184 billion ($75 million) in taxes, which the country lost under the watch of Ms Kagina, the notice says. “We support this suit because our concern is that some URA officials are exploiting this for their own benefit. Some of them abuse their positions and impound or destroy goods of importers who pay taxes. These irregularities compromise every ethical practice. It is our resolve that if the irregularities are not investigated and action taken, we will start a campaign to discourage our members from payment of taxes,” said Issa Sekitto, spokesman of the Kampala City Traders Association. Last month, the Special Investigations Unit of the Uganda Police also opened an inquiry into how the goods were allowed into the country without being declared as raw materials or appearing on the approved list of Uganda’s raw materials and industrial inputs published in the EAC Gazette under legal notice No. EAC/10/2007.

ALL THE BAD CAN BE SAID ABOUT AMIN, BUT THE SYSTEM IN HIS TIME ENABLED SOME OF US TO STUDY

Amin may have been that bad as he is portrayed, but some of us, if we had gone to school during the NRM time, we would not be what we are intellectually. The fees was affordable in a good school you could pay shs 650 a year. Bursaries were in place. Now, the money which would help in these ventures has simply been stollen and people have built many hills around kampala. Health facilities lack facilities, the education is simply cheating to pass exams, the stealing in Government of unprecedented extent. Oh God, we deserve better. William Kituka Kiwanuka

IS THERE ANY HOPE TO SEE CLEAN BIDS IN MUSEVENI'S REMAINING TIME?

President Museveni surely has so many expenditures whose source of funding is very unclear. His military roles in the region, so many people allegedly on payroll for whatever they do to see his regime survive. Chances are that he may be tempted to use people in Government offices to do wrong things such that at the end of the day some funds are realized for his empire and influence. William Kituuka Kiwanuka ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OFFICIALS SMUGGLE BIDS IN $2BN KARUMA DEAL By Yasiin Mugerwa Posted Wednesday, October 3 2012 at 08:55 Officials in the Ministry of Energy accepted bids for the long-delayed and controversy-hit Karuma hydropower deal which were reportedly smuggled to the contracts committee, it emerged Tuesday evening. Junior Energy minister Simon D'Ujanga told MPs on the House Energy Committee investigating allegations of corruption in the $2 billion Karuma deal that bids from companies which were not pre-qualified found their way to the evaluation committee in breach of procurement procedures. Pre-qualification is the process of screening of potential contractors to develop a list of qualified bidders who would then be invited tobid. The procurement breach, contained in the minister’s confidential document, to the committee was singled out by Aswa MP Reagan Okumu who demanded an explanation from the minister. “From your statement we are seeing ghost companies being smuggled into the contracts committee. Can the minister explain the circumstances under which Salini S.p.A and Sinohydro-CMC Karuma JV submitted bids for consideration,” Mr Okumu asked. Confirming what legislators have called, “open” abuse of procedures the minister said contracts committee, sitting March 15, 2011, approved the pre-qualification of Salini Construttori SpA but the bids they received were from Salini S.p.A. Another company pre-qualified company was SinoHydro C.M.C but the bids belonged to Sinohydro-CMC Karuma JV. The minister’s statement also shows that instead of Perlite Construction, it was Perlite Construction Company that submitted the bids. Salini S.p.A is one of the companies which have petitioned the public procurements authority for an administrative review of the evaluation process. But before the outcome of the review Salini S.p.A secured a High Court injunction stopping the process. “There is something fishy about the procurement for this Karuma project. For instance, why did the contracts committee open the bids which were not pre-qualified? The accounting officer even went ahead to waste taxpayers money in a hopeless administrative review,” Alex Ruhunda (Fort Portal Municipality) said. PS Kabagambe Kaliisa, the accounting officer, didn’t answer calls. Parliament’s investigation comes after a Kampala court last week issued fresh orders directing the government and all authorities to stop considering a bid to build the Karuma Hydro Power Dam. The orders followed a petition filed by a private citizen, Mr Twine Muganga, on September 10 in which the government was asked to withhold the feared award of the contract a Chinese company, China International Water and Electric Corporation, which stands accused of having falsified bid documents. There was some drama when Mr D’Ujanga and Eng. Paul Mubiru, the director for energy and mineral development, could not remember Mr Muganga’s particulars, prompting the committee to kick him out with instructions to return on Thursday with a full explanation about the apparent breach of in procurement procedures. Energy committee chair Michael Werikhe yesterday said: “We are not going to injure the legal process in any way. Our view is that as a committee, we cannot keep quiet on the Karuma project when we read in the papers that all is not right. The consequences will be dire if we don’t get it right.”