By Our Reporters
Reliable sources have disclosed that even after meeting MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter in Europe, President Museveni has remained adamant and unwilling to forgive MTN bosses. That he wants nothing but total overhaul at MTN headquarters on top of having culpable officials criminally prosecuted. As we previously reported, Museveni is angry at MTN bosses for a number of reasons mostly rotating around alleged economic sabotage and espionage. He believes the company revenues and transaction volumes have always been under declared in order to diminish the company’s tax obligations. “He won’t be settling for less because he has been fully briefed by a disgruntled insider how top executives have been working against Uganda’s interests through economic sabotage. GoU officials who have been helping telecom fraudsters are going to face it rough too in URA, DPP and Police,” says a source close to the President. “He has heaps of documents detailing all the scandals including how mobile money-related float has been used to distort the economy and cause inflation through creating miracle money and reflecting non-existing cash. They have been trying to say they are victims of sim boxing but the H.E. has turned out too smart for them. He has more information than they think.”
MORE DISATISFACTION
Museveni is also not satisfied with the license fees MTN wants to pay-$58m as opposed to the $100m he is demanding. Sources close to him have disclosed what Museveni’s argument is; he has rejected the argument that Safaricom Kenya (which makes much more revenue and has a larger telecom market share) pays only $27m as license renewal fees. He says the Safaricom experience is totally different because, being an owner up to 30%, the Kenyan government has a direct revenue stream in the company. Sources close to him say that the President, urged on by his business-minded AG William Byaruhanga, isn’t prepared to forfeit the $42m which MTN wants to save by paying $58m. Museveni has also rejected the MTN claim that they are unable to raise $100m because they are investing $200m in network upgrade to be able to comply with the new Broadband policy requiring them to saturate the whole country with 4G internet network. Instead Museveni has demanded to see a comprehensive business plan detailing where exactly this $200m is going to be invested. “What are they exactly upgrading? These are things they were supposed to do under the old license of 20 years. The H.E. wants to know are they building a new site. Do you need to invest so much to merely move from 3G to 4G? The H.E. wants to know clearly why one needs capital expenditure of $200m just to move from 3G to 4G. It’s like saying you need to buy a new computer in order to upgrade your windows or buying a new phone in order to replace a software. Why are they reopening network expansion which was supposed to be covered in the last 20 year license period?” says a source close to the President. “His whistle blowing insiders have already told him how some people at MTN are genetically greedy and want to save the $42m for their own motives. But it has also been revealed that the same disgruntled insider has told the President how some people at MTN have become so rich and addicted to impunity they can even build capacity to topple him from power because they have almost everybody in town on their payroll. That they have previously attempted to dangle money at his own staff in return for favorable treatment. The insider has also furnished Museveni with details regarding new mobile money float accounts that continue to be fictitiously created and he is fearful this could distort the economy and create artificial inflation. Economic distortion isn’t something Museveni can take lightly having seen his comrades Munangagwa in Zimbabwe and Bashir in Sudan struggle to overcome economy-related political riots. “The idea why these mobile money accounts are being newly created afresh is to create miracle cash in float form which in actual sense doesn’t exists. That is very dangerous for the economy the very reason why the H.E. is very keen,” says a knowledgeable source adding these are some of the things investigators want summoned MTN officials to shed light on. “Are they aware? And which steps are they taking to foil such moves aimed at sabotaging the economy.” Wondering why Court didn’t show interest when Richard Mwami hinted on this “miracle cash” being in existence, the Musevenist source said “action must be firmly taken because this is illegal money creating inflation, enabling the culprits to siphon money hiding behind the MTN float against which no actual cash exists and by doing that they are essentially taking over the Central Bank.”
ENEMY WITHIN
We have reliably learnt that since becoming CEO, Wim Vanhelleputte tried to assert his authority by trimming the wings of some long serving MTN bosses in Kampala. In the process, such bosses lost their clout and hefty deals off which they used to make a killing. “Wim was doing the right thing streamlining operations of the company but in the process stepped on toes and people are fighting back because they won’t go down alone,” sources say. “One of them had earlier on been implicated in intelligence briefs to the H.E. saying he was a Rwanda agent. He decided to go to the President and reveal everything he knew because he feared security coming after him for espionage and was also being mistreated in the Win era. It made sense meeting up with Yoweri and cooperate by volunteering all the tax-evasion and economic sabotage information he knows.” We have reliably been informed that this disgruntled insider has revealed a lot of things to the President complete with files and audio recordings exposing secretive dealings at MTN. “The same manager has given the H.E. even evidence of officials being bribed at URA, DPP and Police and even courts of law to ensure would-be criminal cases against MTN don’t succeed,” says a State House source adding that Museveni knows too much for the implicated officials to survive prosecution. “It’s time for clean up because even after meeting the Group CEO, Mzee recieved the latest compilation of evidence against MTN officials and all this was compiled by the disgruntled insider who continues to be privy to a lot of stuff. He has been briefed about internal efforts to cover up things as the investigations intensify and he is determined to clean up the whole thing once and for all.” Sources say that vowing “not to go down alone,” the whistle blowing MTN official delivered to Museveni everything including lists of key officials at URA, DPP and other government departments to whom bribes have often been delivered to kill off cases or insider complaints lodged against MTN, a company Museveni accuses of economic sabotage and tax evasion. Sources say one case that greatly angered Museveni related to how officials at URA, DPP and pre-Okoth Ochora police force connived to help MTN escape a tax obligation of over Shs20bn years ago. Museveni is now convinced there was connivance because some of the correspondence in his possession shows that concerned MTN officials had owned up in writing but still URA didn’t act patriotically. On another occasion, Museveni has learnt, MTN’s tax obligation was curiously reduced from Shs25bn to Shs3bn and eventually to Shs1.5bn. The officials concerned to act for the GoU were bribed with $2m which two of them shared leaving out another two yawning. One of the excluded officials got the full details to State House, the very reason the H.E. is very bitter. At Museveni’s prompting, investigators will be asking why one URA customs official immediately quit the job after getting his share off the $2m bribe. As individuals, those involved benefited as they got a clean $2m but Museveni is angry Uganda as a country lost out. One of the URA officials involved had some time back been lined up for a juicy appointment which Museveni blocked on getting this very implicating information-partly volunteered by the disgruntled MTN insider who was personally involved in delivering the cash. Whereas he was personally not involved, DPP Mike Chibita will politically have to answer to the President regarding the misconduct of his officers who curiously hesitated to prosecute some culpable officers at MTN. He wants to know why nobody has ever been charged and instead would-be whistle blowers like Richard Mwami are the ones that were quickly prosecuted. The concerned police officers, already reported to Museveni to have wet their beaks, will have to answer why no statements were recorded by concerned MTN officials. There is a string of exchanges of correspondences between DPP, URA and MTN on that matter and Museveni now has his copies on file. There is a one Byansi who sources say Museveni wants to personally interface with as he corroborates his information. Flamboyant City lawyer Fred Muwema is another public-spirited individual who tried to take on MTN over tax evasion-related matters but was let down by the improper conduct and indifference that was exhibited by the judiciary, DPP, URA and police officers involved. He could be extremely helpful in the latest offensive against MTN because he had collected so much as he prepared his case before being betrayed by corporate corruption that followed his case. Sources say Museveni now knows so much the best MTN officials can do is to own up and apologize or else they die in their own movie.
M7 NOT MOVED
We are told whereas he is grateful for the strong info the MTN disgruntled insider has volunteered, Museveni remains reluctant to forgive him totally. His view is much as he has cooperated, the man should stand trial for especially alleged espionage. “It’s not going to be easy and you can be sure this is going to be a very busy season for the investigators at Kibuli and SIU Kireka. Whereas he realizes MTN is too big to be evicted from Uganda, Mzee is determined to isolate implicated individuals from the company so that they carry their own cross as individuals,” says a knowledgeable source. Watch this space.
