Yasiin Mugerwa
4 July 2009
Kampala — The Cabinet has given away 132 hectares of Ministry of Agriculture land used as quarantine and holding ground for imported animals at Entebbe to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the Public Accounts Committee heard on Thursday.
The Committee heard that a Cabinet committee chaired by the first deputy Prime Minister, Mr Eriya Kategaya allocated the Livestock Experimental Station used for animal disease control, to CAA and that a title deed had already been issued amid protest from the Ministry of Agriculture.
"We have petitioned the Prime Minister because this is our land. We want the inter-ministerial committee ruling to reverse the decision because we need this land for expansion of our livestock facilities," the Agriculture Permanent Secretary, Mr Vincent Rubarema told Pac.
Surprisingly, Mr Rubarema could not spell out the acreage of the land in question, forcing the committee to query his vigilance over public assets under his watch. But information from CAA indicates that the land in question is about 132 hectares and will be used to build a modern cargo centre.
The committee heard that after the Cabinet decision in July 2007, Maj. Bright Rwamirama, the state minister for animal industry petitioned the Prime Minister contesting the Cabinet report on the matter without any success.
"Ministry of Agriculture's input was not included in the [Cabinet] report.
Therefore the report cannot be used as a basis for final recommendations to resolve the wrangle between Ministry of Agriculture and CAA," Maj. Rwamirama said. The CAA publicist, Mr Igine Igunduura, denied any wrongdoing, saying: "We didn't grab this land. It was given to us by the highest office in the country to construct a cargo centre for the promotion of agro-exports by air which will also benefit the Ministry of Agriculture."
However, MPs heard that the Cabinet has since disregarded Maj.
Rwamirama's petition and given away the land in question through unclear circumstances.
The committee Chairperson, Mr Nandala Mafabi (FDC, Budadiri West) said: "The incarceration and clinical examination facilities will not be able to be done on imported livestock and this is dangerous. "
The committee has requested for all the documentation to the land and issued a temporary injunction pending parliamentary investigations into the Cabinet decision.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
