Ugandan Govt Urged to Make Petroleum, Mining Agreements Public

Over 45 civil society organisations under their umbrella Publish What You Pay Uganda (PWYP - Uganda) have urged the Ugandan government to make public all petroleum and mining agreements the country has signed with Multi-National Corporations, saying that contract disclosure is one of the safeguards of ensuring proper management of petroleum and mineral resources.

"Government must urgently disclose key agreements that Uganda has signed under the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project (EACOP), including but not limited to the Host Government Agreement (HGA), the Transportation and Tariff Agreement (TTA) and the Shareholders Agreement (SHA) among others," Gideon Nshambire Atukwatse, the Chairperson of Public What You Pay Uganda, said.

The CSOs want government to delay the finalisation of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) that was tabled in parliament in October 2021, as well as the Special Provisions Bill 2021, that is meant to operationalise the key agreements the government signed to facilitate the development of the EACOP project. The CSOs said that the government must delay it's finalisation until it has conducted adequate public consultations. They are also demanding that the government make public all the mineral licences it has issued thus far, as well as details of all mining revenue paid to the government.