By Mulengera Reporters
Speaking as a founding member of CCEDU which is one of the 13 NGOs Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) blacklisted recently, DP President Norbert Mao has this Monday morning demanded immediate resignation or sacking of FIA Executive Director Sydney Asubo on grounds he is too inept to hold such a sensitive position.
Mao said sanctioning Asubo was the only way Uganda can overcome growing tendencies of intelligence gatherers manufacturing fake intelligence to opportunistically win favors of the appointing authority who he said is these days easy to manipulate because he is increasingly becoming nervous and paranoid as the electioneering year 2021 draws near.
“The entire team at FIA are colossally incompetent because how do you probe into a bank account which doesn’t exist for instance in CCEDU’s case? The Coalition, as Dr. Livingstone Sewanyana [CCEDU chairman] has just told us, has just been registered and its yet to have a bank account having been newly registered. Yes we know NGOs have always been victims of fake intelligence but something must be fundamentally wrong at FIA and the top boss should take responsibility and resign or be fired immediately for others to learn,” said the eloquent DP leader during the morning session that was attended by many MPs and at least two senior/influential government ministers namely Frank Tumwebaze and Moses Kizige.
Tumwebaze, who had actually left for Cabinet meeting by the time Mao spoke, briefly spoke about abundantly available ICT opportunities that CCEDU can leverage on to increase efficiency in the way it goes about its mandate in the runner up to 2021 general elections.
Kizige, who represented Premier Rugunda and had more time at the meeting, arrayed Mao’s fears saying compliance audits (like what FIA is pondering) are a normal thing in any business and that since they are sure they have committed no wrongdoing, there is nothing that CCEDU bosses should be frightened about.
Tumwebaze said the NRM government by policy believes in existence of a strong civil society movement but implored NGOs to equally scrutinize opposition political formations the way they do when exposing excesses of government. Saying the CCEDU bosses should get in touch with his PS Vincent Bagiire, Tumwebaze said there is a lot on which CCEDU and his Ministry and entire ICT sector can build synergies to expedite service delivery in the area of civic educations and elections management.
Mao’s views were later on peripherally supported by DGF head Wim Stoppers who wondered why and how his organization, that isn’t an NGO, came to be ineptly listed in the FIA letter as one of the 13 NGOs whose banking transactions are being investigated. Richard Sewakiryanga, who heads the NGO Board and is also a CCEDU founder member said (while moving vote of thanks) that government had better be advised to avoid such confrontation by FIA saying such can only create more antagonism and mistrust at a time dialogue is considered the best way to deepen understanding and resolve differences between governments and CSOs.
Sewanyana, who was handing over the office of CCEDU Chairman after occupying it for 10 years since 2009, said the FIA letter was regrettable because it had bred more fake news including social media reports that maliciously and falsely indicated several CSOs and NGOs had been deregistered by government including CCEDU. To dispel all these rumors, Sewanyana signaled Faridah Lule (one of the CCEDU officials) to display the registration certificate and permit CCEDU had just received from government.
He thanked the NGO Bureau (that was represented by Board member Margaret Sekagya) for expeditiously issuing them with the permit and the Prime Minister’s Office for being very supportive and collaborative with CCEDU. He enumerated things which CCEDU had accomplished in close collaboration with government entities like Police, NIRA, the OPM and the EC. He said malicious actors and haters, including envious peers from the CSO movement, shouldn’t be allowed to misinform government to antagonize this good relationship that continues to blossom.
The DGF boss Stoppers, perhaps careful not to create diplomatic breaches, avoided the Mao strong language and instead said he looked forward to resolving whatever uneasiness government might have towards his organization through dialogue. Tumwebaze and Kizige referred to the National Development Plans and the Vision 20p40, under which the NDPs are derived, to make a case that the Museveni government believes in the CSO movement’s capability to contribute to service delivery and nation building.
Cissy Kagaba, who heads ACCU a big-name NGO in the accountability sector, says the way the list of the 13 NGOs was drafted is clearly indicative of the extent to which GoU is afraid of some NGOs in the runner up to 2021 elections.
The 13 NGOs include ActionAid International Uganda; Citizens’ Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU); Alliance for Campaign Finance Monitoring; Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda; Uganda National NGO Forum and Human Rights Network Uganda. Others being National Democratic Institute, Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies (GLISS); Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI); Democratic Governance Facility (DGF); Kick Corruption Out of Uganda; National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE) and Africa Institute for Energy Governance. Sydney Asubo’s last Thursday letter to the banks reads as follows: “The purpose of this communication, therefore, is to request you to search your databases and avail us account opening documents, bank statements for the last three years and any other information available to you linked to each of the above listed entities for our further review.” He wants information covering transactions of the last three years. While remaining uncomfortable discussing much detail, Asubo confirms writing to the banks. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
