By Mulengera Reporters
Led by NUP’s Gozanga Sewungu of Kalungu West and NRM’s Naomi Kabasharira of Rushenyi County in Ntungamo and Allan Atugonza of Buliisa, MPs who are members of the Natural Resources Committee last Thursday met and interacted with a large delegation of officials from the electricity sub sector including those from the Energy Ministry (who were led by Eng Abdon Atwine who is the Ag PS & State Minister Olupot Okasai), UEDCL, UEGCL, UETCL and ERA, the regulator.
After Dr. Geoffrey Okoboi, the Director Economic Regulation at ERA made what MPs considered to be uncoordinated and contradictory unsatisfactory submissions (including claiming that UMEME invested in the network up to the last day as was done at the Gaba sub station, plus that the delay in investing in the distribution network was due to failure to expedite staff integration and due to regulatory/licensing conditionalities prohibiting UEDCL from investing in the network on good time even after the GoU had availed $126m and another $50m loan from ABSA bank), Sewungu (supported by others) demanded that ERA and UEDCL officials tender the UMEME handover report for inspection by the Committee.
The Ag UEDCL MD Eng Joselynne Rwabwogo Rwakakoko signalled Ms Dorothy Mubiru, who serves as the Company Secretary and was personally in close contact with UMEME during the 20-year concession period, to respond to these demands. Mubiru said she wasn’t in position to produce copies of the handover report because she never received any.
She asked for time to go and see if she can find a copy, prompting Eng Atwine to desire to say something only to be restrained by the Committee chairperson who preferred that people from UEDCL carry their cross.
“This all shows that they even have no asset register clearly indicating what was handed over by UMEME and which can also guide UEDCL on where to invest the $126m. The handover report would show the state of the network and thereby guide UEDCL on where to invest immediately as a matter of priority,” the Committee Chairperson Dan Kimosho of Kazo County declared upon seeing the confusion that descended onto his guests the moment the MPs demanded for the handover report.
Minister Okasai tried to weigh in at this point in time only to be obstructed by Sewungu who loudly declared: “But remember you are a politician. Why do you want to go into those things when the UEDCL officials are here and can speak for themselves?”
Okasai said that in the absence of the handover report, which MPs insisted ought to be more detailed, there is an audit report that was done as UMEME exited indicating which fixed asset was where and in which state. Okasai maintained that the audit report should ordinarily capture the same information as the handover report would, prompting Dr. Michael Bukenya of Bukuya County in Kasanda to immediately contradict him.
The MPs maintained that the handover report is the only document, showing state of the network, that the UEDCL management can credibly rely upon to determine the priority aspects of the distribution network on which the $126m given by the GoU has to be expended. “You may invest on things which are already available which results into costly duplication,” one MP put it to officials from both ERA and UEDCL.
Saying he was always pessimistic and knew things would only get worse in the post-UMEME era, Buliisa MP Allan Atugonza recalled storming former UEDCL MD Paul Mwesigwa’s office and putting it to him the country was headed for disaster. Another MP claimed deliberate sabotage by some officials at ERA to ensure that the UEDCL project fails so that a UMEME-like actor is once again reintroduced into Uganda’s electricity sub sector.
The people’s representatives accused the regulator of always pampering UMEME and allowing the private company to get away with many things, which is why UEDCL is right now limping having inherited an ailing distribution network. A section of MPs, led by Naomi Kabasharira, vowed that UMEME would only come back to Uganda’s electricity sub sector over their dead body.
Sewungu weighed in once again insisting that Kimosho compels the UEDCL top executives to submit not just audit but the handover report, which he said ought to contain detailed challenges which MPs can make use of as they lobby the rest of the House into voting for more money to enable UEDCL become adequately capacitated to sufficiently invest in the network.
Rwakakoko came in arraying fears because in her view the assets register is in place and has been regularly updated clearly reflecting the company’s assets, where they are located and the state they are in. She said the same enumerates everything that was handed over by UMEME at the time of exit.
The company CFO came in to complement her MD on that and made it clear UEDCL had always worked with UMEME, even during the days of the concession, to ensure they both knew the state of the network at all times. The same CFO called on MPs to abandon their demands for a formal handover report because none has ever existed. But that notwithstanding, she asserted, all the information the people’s representatives need is available and is well updated. MPs were told how the same information was being digitized to be made available in electronic form since the officer who used to head ICTs at UMEME is now with UEDCL holding exactly the same role.
Parliament was also told about how ERA had cleared UEDCL to hire a consultant to be involved in compiling the asset register to ensure all went well. The consultant reportedly was the one helping to harmonize to ensure both the representatives of UMEME and UEDCL’s were on the same page on this issue. MPs were also told about the asset compilation committee which did equally a very good job under the leadership of Eng Abdon Atwine, the Ag Energy PS, who was present at the Thursday sitting.
Unafraid of wrecking the boat as always, ERA’s Dr. Geoffrey Okoboi controversially told MPs that there was nothing scandalous about absence of the UMEME handover report because there was never any requirement in the concession agreement or even the distribution license requiring UMEME to ever make or tender such a document before exiting Uganda’s electricity market.
Anna Maria Nankabirwa of Kyankwanzi demanded that Okasai and the Ag PS Eng Abdon Atwine become more outspoken at the subsequent committee meetings because “hiding things from us isn’t going to help make the loadshedding situation any better.” (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
