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Uganda: U.S. Commends Uganda On Corruption
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The Monitor (Kampala)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Angelo Izama
Kampala
Uganda has received a rare pat on the back for President Yoweri Museveni's "war on corruption" from the US government.
This comes after officials from the Ministry of Finance foiled an attempt by a highly connected local construction company to grab land earmarked for a strategic oil depot from its owners when it emerged that government was ready to pay a huge compensation for acquiring it.
The genuine owner, from whom the Ministry of Energy planned to buy the land located in Wakiso to build a the depot on its proposed Eldoret to Kampala oil pipeline, is an Asian of US citizenship.
The scandal which involved falsified titles justified by the Ministry of Finance itself as well as the office of Land registration was first published by the Daily Monitor. The land theft has since been blocked and in a letter to the Minister of Finance Dr. Ezra Suruma dated May 7 2008, the US Ambassador Steven Browning said two officials from the Ministry of Finance had conducted a "thorough investigation to determine the rightful owner" of the land.
"Their efforts [of the finance officials] have prevented an attempted land grab that would have sent negative signals to potential investors" Browning wrote.
The officials commended are legal officer Lt Bernard Tumwesigwe of the Review Task Force for the custodial board for former Asian properties and State Minister Fred Omach.
Until the owners of the disputed land, N.Shah and Company, started negotiating with the Energy Ministry their title had been safe. However in a space of a few months at the end of last year a previously unknown company budged in with a fresh claim that turned out to be an insider plot to dispossess N.Shah whose family has owned the land for 61 years.
The letter from Ambassador Browning is copied to the Minister of Justice Khiddu Makubuya, IGP Kale Kayihura, IGG Faith Mwondha, Fred Omach and Lt. Bernard Tumwesigwe, the investigating officer of a task force on the Custodian Board for former Asian properties who led the effort.
The police, the inspectorate of government and the justice Ministry are some of the accountability institutions whose performance is key to Uganda's bid to receive over US$ 500 million from the capital grant of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a US government body set up to promote good governance. Kampala has been furiously lobbying Washington for the money but success has been elusive largely due to its record on corruption and human rights.
This case may have attracted official US government commendation but perhaps only because a US citizen was involved.
It remains to be seen what the Ministry of Finance will do to junior officials including its Under Secretary Betty Kisambazi who along with the Commissioner for Land Registration Ms Sarah Kulata have been named in the land grab.
Ms Kasimbazi, sources say, initially advised Mr Omach to wrongfully cancel the title on N.Shah, a position that Omach recanted but only after the story had been published in this newspaper.
Ms Kasimbazi knew the Minister had no authority because she had earlier authored an internal memo warning Ministers not to exercise such authority.
She is now being asked to explain her interest in the matter.
Ms Kulata on her part has been summoned to make a written statement at the office of the IGG. " I have been asked to provide a certified copy of the case file [ to the IGG]" Ms Kulata said yesterday. She however insisted that she acted on instructions of Hon. Omach.
Sources with the IGG say however she confessed to colluding to falsify documents in the case.It is not clear what action if any Justice Mwondha will take against her.
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The two rival companies are in court where Mulowooza consequently claimed that obtained its title to the land when it purchased the land from the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry now says it never sold any land to the company.
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