Yasiin Mugerwa
23 August 2008
Even though Amber House is a government property, it has emerged that since 2000 the Ministry of Energy officials have continued to pay rent to a company called Amber House Ltd whose operations are a cause of concern to Members of Parliament.
Sources in the Ministry of Energy who requested not to be named for fear of losing their jobs told Saturday Monitor that there is a company called Amber House Ltd, which continues to collect colossal sums of money in rent from the Ministry of Energy. The ministry pays Shs.48m per month and the company is said to be collecting shs.60bn annually in rent from all tenants.
"This money has never been declared, it has never been audited and nobody knows how it is being utilised yet the building belongs to the government. This has been going on for close to eight years because the Ministry claims that it pays rent to owners of the building yet it's a fact that it belongs to the government", the source stated.
While scrutinising the Ministry of Energy's 2008/09 budget on Wednesday, the Deputy Speaker Ms Rebecca Kadaga who picked the Amber House issue from the Natural Resources Committee report to Parliament forced the sector Minister, Mr Daudi Migereko to explain the circumstances under which government was paying rent to itself.
"This is not acceptable. We cannot continue paying for rent at Amber House which is a government building. This will be wastage," Ms Kadaga said. She demanded for an explanation from the Minister of Energy on why parliament should approve funds for rent of a property that belongs to government.
Saturday Monitor has learnt that although Ministry of Energy pays rent, Amber House which is located on plot 29/31 Kampala Road is one of the government assets which were placed under care of Uganda Property Holding Limited (UPHL), a private company that was formed by Ministry of Finance in 1998 to manage government properties at home and abroad.
"We have raised these issues concerning Amber House rent but without any success," Mr Migereko said. "As a Ministry we don't understand why we should continue paying rent yet we should own this building because as of now it's owned by UPHL," he said.
But Mr Migereko's said that Amber House belongs to UPHL were rejected by Chairperson of the Parliamentary Commissions Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises Committee, Mr John Odit (UPC, Erute South). Mr. Odit explained that Amber House was owned by Amber House Ltd, a public company which was established in 1954 with the former Uganda Electricity Board (UEB), Coffee Marketing Board (UCB) and Lint Marketing Board (LMB). He said that after the privatization of government parastatals, the energy sector retained the building.
"These people of Amber House Ltd have been behaving dubiously by collecting rent through a certain company called Bageine and Company Advocates," Mr Odit said. "We have instructed the Auditor General to carry out a special audit and established the reasons why this company has never remitted any coin to the consolidated fund."
"To show you the seriousness of this Amber House controversy, my committee ( Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises Committee ) has made a report which we shall submit to parliament for further scrutiny. But we are worried that this controversy has been used as a conduit to defraud public money," Mr. Odit said.
The Amber House rent controversy comes after reports that every year the government loses an estimated Shs68 billion in renting office space for various ministries and other state agencies.
Armed with statistical evidence, Mr John Arumadri (FDC, Madi-Akollo) told Parliament recently that last year alone, taxpayers lost a staggering Shs68 billion in rent for government office space."Renting office accommodation is a source of arrears and fraud especially during negotiations. This business of renting government offices is not sustainable as billions are spent every year on rent yet we can build government offices," Mr. Arumadri stated.
Highlights of last year's budget expenditures show that Uganda Revenue Authority spent Shs2.3 billion, Ministry of Energy over 48 million, Ministry of Gender Shs1.4 billion, State House spent Shs774m in rent.
The office of the President spent Shs802m, Office of the Prime Minister Shs718m, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Shs1.3b, Ministry of Local Government Shs540m, the Police Shs400m, the office of the DPP Shs550m among others.
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