EC’S 200M SPARKS WAR IN FDC AS DONORS THREATEN TO QUIT

All isn’t well at Najjanankumbi the FDC headquarters where the Shs200m that was recently released by the Electoral Commission, as part of the government support to parties, has sparked war regarding what should be done with the money. Whereas majority top officials believe the money should be used to fund activities contained in the Strategic Plan of the party, others want the money to be used towards payment of rent arrears incurred at one of the top official’s building in Naguru that was occupied by TDA from which FDC officially parted but some bosses insist the party must carry the responsibility to pay the Alliance’s debts. The EC annually gives all parties with representation in Parliament some money depending on numeric strength. In FDC’s case, the party gets Shs3bn but released on quarterly basis onto its account in DFCU Bank. For this current quarter, Shs200m reached the party account a few days ago but was withdrawn immediately, a thing that has sparked chaos in the party. Questions are being raised as to who withdrew the money and spent it without being authorized by either NEC or the Management Committee. The development was preceded by a letter by the Secretary General Nandala Mafabi directing Chief Administrative Officer Rose Nassanga (a fellow signatory to the party accounts) to never write to the bank asking for the financial statement of the party. Nassanga was on Friday admitted to Mengo hospital and as of last night had deteriorated into the ICU.

DONORS QUIT: in a related development, some of the donor agencies that support governance and human rights programs (and have therefore always been supporting FDC activities) have recently indicated unwillingness to continue partnering with the party. The example is that of German organization Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) whose new Uganda country head Mathias Kamp a few days ago delivered the bad news to the party leaders. He specifically told them he was reviewing his organization’s relationship with FDC. This was after the KAS Secretariat protested the poor quality of the funding request proposal the party had sent them calling for funding for a capacity building activity. The German NGO’s concern was that FDC had written the same letter to three different agencies stating the same intervention which is alien to the standard way of going about things of that nature. When one of the top party leaders went to his office in Kololo to follow up on the proposal, Mathias Kamp demanded for a better written proposal and the party official confronted and told him off instead of being remorseful and owning up. The party official said FDC is the biggest opposition party in Uganda and can do without KAS funds. “Those are small things. We are a big party and every donor wants to partner with us,” the official was quoted as telling off Mathias Kamp who has since shared his concerns with the Netherlands Institute (which supports IPOD) and the International Republican Institute which are the other two sister organizations to which the FDC party sent the same proposal (only differing on the addressees). Mathias Kamp has since vowed not to support any of the FDC activities until the party formally apologizes.