Where Is Parliament In Curbing Robbery of Public Funds and Resources?

By Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Imperial Royale Hotel is one of the private businesses which receive public funds for their development without the tax-payer getting any value for its funds.The best Parliament can do is talk about such for some time and then let the Karims of Uganda walk scot free.

The Daily Monitor newspaper of December 13, 2013 quoted the Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary (PS), James Mugume, saying that government had quit talks with Imperial Royale Hotel proprietor Karim Hirji.

Karim Hirji had, from nowhere, been given 4 billion shillings on the pretext of accommodating visitors during the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meet (CHOGM) in 2007. CHOGM is one incident where senior government officials, at the highest level of administration, literally undressed themselves as avarice for money took the best of them.

“After the arbitration process which had been recommended by the Attorney General on Hirji’s request failed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the Solicitor General to sue the tycoon over nonpayment of public funds.”

What the PS said is exactly what is expected from this government when it comes to robbing the tax-payer’s hard earned money. This can now be referred to as government’s approved means of robbery.

There are a lot of unanswered questions as to why and how government decided to donate money to the Imperial Royale hotel when it was not ready for business. While government was more interested in robbing public funds, it carried out double robbery of its people because those who were ready for CHOGM were denied the opportunity to reap from the event.

It is this same hotel that was constructed in the road reserve and is accorded 24 hour armed-police protection on top of concrete barricades. The road passing in front of the hotel has also been closed to the public.

Grand Imperial and Speke hotels too have public roads passing in front of them. But they have never been closed and do have the heavy armed protection like Imperial Royale. That is if terrorism was to be advanced as the reason for the special protection accorded to Imperial Royale. May be it is because they never received the CHOGM donations. The Inspector General of Police can do some clarification here, in public interest if such phrase makes any sense.

Whatever reasons will be brought forward, Parliament has a duty to come up and explain to the tax-payer why it has taken over five years to come out to establish value for public funds spent on private property.

It is not Karim Hirji or Imperial Royale alone; Sudhir Ruparelia’s Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort and the late Joseph Behakanira’s JM Airport Road hotel too received public funds on the pretext of making preparations for the CHOGM guests and activities.

“There is no one who has destroyed this country like Parliament. When they talk, they talk good things but when it comes to voting they vote for what is detrimental to the country,” said Joseph Sewungu MP for Kalungu West.

Sewungu was addressing the St. Agnes Kibuye-Makindye congregation on December 22, 2013 after the 10:00 O’clock Mass. He further told the congregation that although the anti Homosexuality Bill had been passed, President Museveni being what he is will not sign it into law because he fears the donors. He thus urged the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church to pile pressure on the president to sign.   

The MP also urged Catholics to desist from being contented with small things yet they can go for greater ones. He sent them into wild sheers when he asked them to start thinking of him as a future president, before adding that he was in his second year of law at Makerere University as he wants to graduate from a teacher to a lawyer.

The Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort received 28,984,969,100 shillings all in all for the CHOGM activities. Although the facility is witnessing a boom in business, the Ugandan tax-payers are not receiving anything in turn as a result of that lavish donation. All they can boast of is that the prestigious Forbes Magazine selected the proprietor, one of their own, as the richest man in East Africa.

Government also paid a dedicated Power Supply line for MCWR at Shs. 519,227,087 million and a UPS system at Shs. 43.2 million. This was paid to Umeme the power generation, distribution and Supply Company.

Forbes Magazine fell short of declaring the amount contributed to that wealth by the poor Ugandan tax payer. It estimates that Sudhir is worth US $ 1.1 billion.

Although the JM Hotel was not on the list of venues to be used during CHOGM, it received US $ 1.3 million the equivalent of 2,210,000,000 shillings. While there was no CHOGM activity at the hotel, the fact remains that by then it had not opened for business.

When the PS says that Karim was not cooperating to move the talks forward, it is understandable. These beneficiaries or better fronts who receive these donations, handouts or economic bailouts, buoyed by the protection and assurances from their political godfathers, can dare any individual and institution demanding for accountability from them.

Unfortunately Parliamentarians are simply talking about Karim Hirji and nothing is being said about other recipients of public funds for their private properties. Neither is the Parliament hinting about the interests accrued from these funds for all these years nor the circumstances under which funds were doled out.

It is injustice of the highest order since even Ugandans genuinely looking for funds to borrow are denied such opportunity to improve their wellbeing as well as of those they employ. Yet here are some special people who are being assisted to turn public funds into their personal property.

It is during such confusion that the lessons taught to us by the anti apartheid fallen icon, Nelson Rohlahla Madiba Mandela, have to be put into practice. Blatant robbery of public funds and resources, for self enrichment of those in power and their cronies, has to be resisted by all available means.

There are already a lot of lessons pointing at this Parliament’s greed, inefficiency and destructive tendencies. Consider the construction of the parking lot to accommodate 504 vehicles. As if that is the ideal figure for the august house.

When a sober regime comes into power, this outrageous politics of hopeless numbers will be no more. Parliament will be a place for a few level headed individuals, capable of legislating for the sustainable development of the country. The sleeping Movement MPs, who only wake up to vote in favour of president Yoweri Museveni, will be forced to find employment elsewhere without being a nuisance and burden to the tax payer.

Given the available meager resources, the whooping 36.4 billion shillings used to construct the parking lot and the US $ 6.5 million needed to secure it is a case of wastage, selfishness and inconsideration of the tax payer.  Private business people would have been allowed to set up commercial parking space in the vicinity of Parliament. MPs would have utilized those parking spaces. In the event of downsizing the MPs, the proprietors would still earn decently from the ventures as their investments would still be accessible to the general public.

Worse still, the parking lot is just the first phase. The second phase will consist of expanding Parliament chambers. More billions are earmarked for wastage while Ugandan children miss out on quality education due to peanuts paid to the teachers.

Parking at Parliament’s door steps is not going to improve MPs’ legislative abilities rather than remain a reminder of priorities got upside down.