At the end of December 2009, it fell on the junior minister of energy, Simon D'juaga, to send a brief to President Yoweri Museveni on behalf of the Ministry of Energy and trilogy that provides technical information on Uganda's national oil programme.

The grapevine had for weeks rumbled about a potential deal between the largest oil company in Italy and the wild cat explorer- Heritage "behind the back" of its local partner Tullow Oil. This was the first major outing of a "big deal" in the oil sector.

Much later- a senior oil official from Tullow reportedly remarked- it helps that when it comes down to a wire everything depends on what the President says.

The Ministry of Energy brief- a highly confidential document at the time- was meant to provide State House with the official assessment of the technocrats and the cabinet of whether the deal served Ugandan interests or not. A copy has been seen by Sunday Monitor and it details the thinking of government experts and cabinet about the deal at hand then, as well as the future of the oil sector.

It briefly concluded that the Heritage-Eni deal, later defended by Energy Minister Hilary Onek, was a better one. The rest is history. The government of Uganda jettisoned the Italian option after facing a potential legal challenge and when the Tullow opened the door for larger global firms like the China Offshore National Oil Company and Total, among others. The decision has largely been seen by external experts have "an example of Uganda making smart choices".

The dark horse of the Ugandan oil story however is the cloak of secrecy that surrounds it - and say insiders the small circle of decision makers with power to determine its direction. Donors, academics and civil society actors also say it would be difficult to shield the oil sector from the corruption raging outside.

At last week's meeting on the budget, to which donors contribute a significant 30 per cent, diplomacy took a backburner as government received an earful over grand corruption and its risk to the oil sector. "Without an effective and accountable government, Uganda could easily become the next African country where oil has become a curse," said World Bank country manager Kadiresan Kundavi in a speech delivered at the budget workshop at Hotel Africana.

"Temangalo" scandal

She lambasted the government over failure to rein in official corruption and the lack of action against publicly identified perpetrators mentioning the parliamentary inquiry into the misuse of funds for the 2007 Commonwealth summit as well as the so-called "Temangalo" scandal.

The Chogm inquiry names senior government officials including the Vice President Gilbert Bukenya, the Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa while the Security Minister Amama Mbabazi was embroiled in the NSSF-Temangalo scandal.

"Your Excellency, corruption in Uganda is endemic and we have seen no signs of improvement," Kundavi said in prepared comments leaked to the media. The battle over the most lucrative assets in January and February gave the public a rare glimpse into the goings on. The emerging picture was, however, a familiar one of influential politicians or their cronies taking sides on what appeared to be the juiciest deal in the history of deals.

Oil and its future challenges was the subject of the first report by a Ugandan university on the subject launched this week at Makerere University. The Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) presented the paper 'Oil in Uganda: Managing expectations' at the inauguration of a research library in collaboration with the World Bank. Vice Chancellor Venasious Baryamureba and Kundavi were the main guests.

The paper was presented by co-researcher Lawrence Bategeka who said expectations over oil would be a "hot" issue with political campaigns starting ahead of the next general election in 2011. The paper says at the heart of anxiety of Ugandans "exaggerated" by official secrecy is the fear that "oil revenues will be swindled by a few state elites".

This they claim is because of the "past record of corruption". The paper which was a perceptions survey based on interviews in the so-called " stakeholder" community on oil also concluded that "no serious justification has been found for the high level of secrecy that has led to exaggerated expectations", adding, that " the ball is now in the government's court".

The Uganda government [and its partners the oil sector] has seen increasing interest in the oil sector and with it more pressure to let up on the initial culture of secrecy.

Platform report

A report by the UK based energy governance campaign group, Platform, first published in the Sunday Monitor, has been cited widely for it's unpacking of the oil wealth sharing agreements that Uganda has signed.

In it the report notes that the oil companies had not been bound by contract to pay for damaging the environment, that the government had not said what it did with signature bonuses, and that mistakes had been made on how much Uganda would get if oil prices were higher. The government is also facing several court cases intended to make the oil contracts public.Chairing the discussion on Tuesday- Ernest Rubondo, the ranking technocrat at the Petroleum Exploration and Production department said there were many misconceptions about the national programme.

"We have gone around and looked. Those who say we should make our agreements public cannot show us where in the world they are public," he said in defense of government. Mr Rubondo also said the Platform report on Uganda's contracts had treated the PSA's as "revenue sharing" agreements instead of simply being agreements to literally divide the number of barrels of oil.

"This means that if more oil is produced then the government share of that oil increases," he said. Ugandan government officials like Rubondo have been more available at meetings organized by civil society to respond to questions about where the oil sector is going recently.

This said one civil society expert is because of pressure for more openness as interest by companies, governments and locals mount on the oil finds. And interest has been racketed up by the fight over Heritage's assets.