Ugandans must stop handling the corrupt, better call them the National Treasury thieves with kid gloves. We are being silly as well as stupid to look on as a few people are exploiting the country. The type of suffering many Ugandans go through is greatly blamed on those in power who are simply looting the resources meant to benefit the masses. We have seen free medical services in Amin's time. If the NRM Government is able to tax the people of Uganda to the extent of leaving them paupers, the tax money MUST be seen go to productive sectors. It surprises to find in some areas of Uganda fruit trees flourish so well, but unfortunately, instead of the politicians planning to see how the locals can benefit from these fruits, they are simply busy stealing the little there is. Whoever is dishing out money to the politically connected thieves has one option, just to resign. No body in Uganda is above the Constitution, and if there is such a one, time is now to see the power put right. It disturbs to see everything wrong, and yet some funny guys are putting up complex buildings in an economy which long ago went to the dogs. Surely, the cost of utilities is the first thing which puts off many would be investors. You cannot invest transparently to lose money.
We have to do things right. Whoever imagines that he/she will use guns to loot Uganda must know that it is his backwardness that is deceiving him. We cannot sit back as people loot the country left and right. If one has no resources to undertake a project, he/she must give in, but not turn around to steal the treasury money. We are fed up of this stupid thieving, and it has to stop.
The Auditor General must get serious on auditing before funds are spent. It does not make sense any more to tell us that politically connected thieves have looted so many billions. There should be no such looting if the auditor generals office can get to audit all these transactions before they take place. It is hopeless continuing with a process which is time wasting with no sound recoveries made. At the same time, we must be concerned about chief executives who get astronomical sums of money. it is possible that one of the reasons they get this money is to have their organizations involved in deals that can easily get covered up. It may not be possible for example to establish who may have originated a transaction through a bank where big sums of money may have been lost as the bank can help handle such money without getting the originator's name or beneficiary name directly involved. We must wake up, because the NRM revolution has a lot of dirt unfortunately.
William Kituuka Kiwanuka
LAWYER ASKS COURT TO BLOCK OIL AGREEMENTS
By CHRIS OBORE
Posted Thursday, December 29 2011 at 00:00
In Summary
Petitioner wants court to restrain government, Tullow and Heritage from undertaking further dealings in exploration, production and selling oil in the Albertine Grabben.
KAMPALA
A lawyer, acting in his private capacity as a citizen, has petitioned court to issue an injunction restraining government from signing any oil deals.
Mr Hamada Mulumba through Bwambale , Musede and Co. Advocates has petitioned court to restrain the Attorney General, Heritage Oil and Gas Limited and Tullow Uganda from “undertaking any further dealings including but not limited to exploration, production, selling, assigning, transferring any interest in exploration Area 3A (EA-3A) kingfisher (Kajubirizi) of the Albertine Graben.”
Tullow Uganda, one of the oil firms jointly sued with government, said they had received the suit. “Tullow is aware of the petition and shall follow due process to contest this case,” said Ms Cathy Adengo, the corporate communications manager.
Parliament decides
The suit comes after the NRM caucus recently voted to allow government sign off oil deals to start oil production despite earlier resolutions by Parliament halting oil transactions until enabling laws are enacted.
President Museveni announced early this month that he would sign off the deals with Total, CNOOC and Tullow by January. But Mr Mulumba in the suit filed on December 22 wants court to declare that the government granted exploration licences to the oil firms in total disregard of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets regulations. He also wants a declaration that Kingfisher discovery ceased to form part of the petroleum exploration area for Heritage and Tullow.
Raw deal
The petitioner also wants a declaration that the transfer of interests by Heritage to Tullow was null and void. The petitioner quotes former Energy Minister Hilary Onek’s letter written on August 17, 2010, to prove that Tullow illegally owns Kingfisher well. “The period within which you are supposed to have applied for a petroleum production licence for the Kingfisher field expired in February 2010,” Mr Onek wrote to Tullow and Heritage.
“In accordance with the powers entrusted to the minister under section 19 (1) (b) of the Act, I hereby direct that the Kingfisher (Kajubirizi) Discovery Area has ceased to form part of the Petroleum Exploration Area 3A (EA-3A) under the exploration licence granted to you on September 8, 2004,” it adds.
In his petition, Mr Mulumba also wants court to compel Heritage and Tullow to account “to the government for benefits accumulated ever since their illegal utilisation of Exploration Area 3A and pay a statutory fine of Shs100m for acting without a valid license.” The petitioner wants the government to comply with PPDA rules in any future oil transactions.
Mr Mulumba’s lawyers said court had fixed hearing of their application for certificate of urgency today. “This is an urgent matter but court is on vacation. We are trying to get a certificate of urgency to have this matter fixed during vacation so that it can be heard,” said Denis Musede, adding: “Intended sell is to take place any time before the end of January; we want a temporary injunction restraining the transaction before the hearing of the main suit.”
cobore@ug.nationmedia.com
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