By John V Sserwaniko
The refugee scandal that continues engulfing the OPM has escalated with emerging of fresh information exposing the ineptness of some of the officials in the UN implementing agencies namely UNHCR and World Food Program (WFP). We have reliably established that since 2014 when the Uganda government ordered UNHCR out and directly took the responsibility for refugee registration, the UNHCR officials became hostile and started undermining the GoU efforts aimed improving management of refugees. For unknown reasons, the UNHCR bosses, some of whom are currently being investigated for alleged inflation of refugee figures and misappropriation of relief food meant for refugees, never wanted to let go of the registration. To its credit, the Uganda government insisted that, since the registration and custody of the refugee register was a security matter, registration had to be done by the OPM that would as a matter of courtesy share the register with UNHCR, WFP and other implementing partners. Ugandan officials also told UNHCR officials that refugee registration was a matter of sovereignty and it would be recklessness to leave it in the hands of foreign agencies. Reliable sources say that UNHCR bosses grumblingly accepted this new position but have for the last 4 years been relentlessly working towards getting something scandalous on which they can ride to tell Geneva (the headquarters of UNHCR) that “we told you these Africans are too corrupt and can’t do anything and get it right.” As of 2014, the OPM was moving towards digitalizing the refugee registration and custody of the related records but the UNCHR bosses, desirous to revenge the GoU repossession of the registration mandate, wrote reports to Geneva recommending that Ugandan digitalization process shouldn’t be supported. As a result some financial support towards computerization was withheld. The GoU objective was to upgrade it to the level of capturing details by way of eyelids and finger print impressions to curb ghost refugees.
$8m/30BN ICT SCAM:
Having successfully mobilized donors to withhold the cash that was supposed to be given to the GoU to update its Refugee Management Information System, the hateful UNHCR officials in the Kampala office de-campaigned the GoU system as outdated and inefficient. The OPM had put in a budget of $4m to upgrade the system that would last permanently but on the malicious campaign, orchestrated by UNHCR Uganda office, the offer was cancelled. Instead the UNCHR officials betrayed their greed and real intentions when they started marketing their alternative proposal to put in place what they called the BIMS system. This would last one year as opposed to ours that would last forever. Whereas it (BIMS) was exactly similar to what the OPM/GoU wanted to keep in place, the NCHR officials who are always very contemptuous of the GoU’s capabilities put in a budget of $8m (almost Shs30bn) for their IT project that would last only one year. Geneva cleared it ($8m) without question despite protestations by the GoU through the OPM. The GoU reservation was that data relating to refugees is a matter of national security and sovereignty and can therefore not be in the hands of UNCHR officials. UNHCR officials made it even worse insisting to host the relevant data servers in Geneva. This meant government agencies like NIRA and the security system that are naturally interested in such information, couldn’t have access or control on it. We are told that is how misunderstandings between OPM and UNHCR, which began in 2014 when GoU repossessed refugee registration, escalated. The UNCHR officials started skipping important meetings or to speak arrogantly whenever they came for such meetings at OPM. Being the calm gentleman he is, Prime Minister Rugunda kept telling his staff to “take things easy” as opposed to fighting back. “Yes one or two things could have gone wrong because globally, refugee figures are always very problematic but the truth is the guys in the UN system in Kampala have always been seeking an opportunity to corroborate their period reports to Geneva that Ugandans like all the other Africans are floppy, corrupt and too inefficient to handle refugee registration,” says a knowledgeable government source close to the ongoing investigations into the allegations raised by UN Country Coordinator Rosa Malango in her January 26th memo to Rugunda. “They [UNHCR officials] even tried to manipulate the previous ministers hoping they can use them to discredit their own country for personal gain so that registration and control of the refugee data reverts to them as was the case before 2014. They approached Malinga [RIP] and made all sorts of offers but he was too patriotic for them. They tried Kabwegyere but the old man was too sharp for them. They backed off but planned to strike again.” The truth, as stated by the multiple sources we spoke to, is that the hateful UNHCR officials needed something scandalous that Geneva can rely onto mobilize funding partners to make demands on the GoU to surrender refugee registration back to the UNHCR. We couldn’t readily establish why the UN refugee agency would like so badly to be in charge of compiling and keeping custody of data relating to refugee registration in a sovereign country like Uganda.
MORE SELFISH MOTIVES:
Unknown to many Ugandans, some of these top Bazungu officials can be very selfish and exploitative seeking to squeeze the most out of every situation. We are told the other reason; they want their very expensive refugee management information system to be the one to be relied is desire to create jobs for their highly paid expatriates many of whom are already in town eating colossal sums of money in remuneration and perdiems even before the project begins. “Their strategy now is to use this scandal to discredit Uganda so that registration reverts to UNHCR so that these redundant expatriates begin doing some work,” said a source. In May 2017, the OPM did something the UNCHR didn’t like. They (OPM) insisted that the practice of especially Somali refugees coming in groups and sending colleagues to pick for them food (it’s given once a month) must stop. When OPM insisted on this, it turned out some food was being misappropriated under the guise of picking food as groups. As of December 2017, the Somalis refugees who had always averaged at around 9,000 curiously reduced to 7,000. On verification it was indeed confirmed the actual number was 7,000 and not 9,000. For unknown reasons, some officials in UNHCR were very displeased with the OPM for rectifying this anomaly and the intrigue only escalated culminating into Rosa Malango’s 26th January 2017 memo raising lots of grievances against both the UNHCR and OPM staff. Good practice (and the law?) also require that if a refugee doesn’t pick his food for three consecutive months, he or she must be struck off the register on the assumption that he must have died or changed status. It could be that he got married, returned home or ceased to be refugee for one reason or another. For unknown reasons, each time OPM staffers have done this (scrapping off absentees), the UNHCR guys reacted furiously. When OPM/GoU staff queries their motives, they write to Geneva claiming harassment by GoU officials. Geneva would then protest to the President directly. To be at peace, most OPM staff had resorted to just looking on seeing mistakes being done by UNHCR/WFP staff or their implementing partners like Samaritan Purse international or even transporters like Mansions. For instance a few years ago, there was outcry in Moroto and Samaritan Purse was expelled as a charity NGO. The Moroto LC5 Chairman Mark Aol accused them of being exploitative and diverting charity raised on behalf of the people. Jimmy Lamokor, who heads the Karamoja Private Sector promotion center, commended Aol and his council for throwing out Samaritan Purse. Even when this scandal was public knowledge, clearly indicting Samaritan Purse, UNHCR/WFP refused to take any action. Some OPM officials argued this was an opportunity to fire Samaritan Purse (an agency through which WFP procures, transports & distributes food) and replace them with one of the local NGOs. The UNHCR/WFP bosses, who always despise local NGOs and workers, reacted furiously insisting Ugandan NGOs are fake, corrupt, lack integrity and are inefficient. The OPM guys backed off but the animosity lived on.
UNHCR/WFP LOCK OUT GOU:
Ordinarily the GoU’s role (through the OPM) is to register refugees, give the data/records to UNHCR/WFP and then wait for reports regarding food distribution from the two UN agencies. Through the officers like Camp Commandants, the GoU is also supposed to supervise/oversee the distribution of the food in the refugee settlements. This is meant to ensure the food that was dispatched for a given settlement safety reaches intended beneficiaries. But in what many consider betrayal of the intended beneficiaries (the refugees), the UN agencies have rudely been sidelining the OPM staff. On getting the refugee registers from the OPM, the two UN agencies verify them whereafter they proceed to the field to distribute the food. Every after distribution of the food in the refugee settlements/camps, Samaritan Purse is supposed to write a monthly report for WFP (their employer) and WFP must give a copy of the report (showing how much was distributed to who and in which camp) but quite often, they don’t give copies to the GoU/OPM. This has for long constrained OPM’s efforts to do verification or supervision as to whether refugees claimed to have received the food really exist. There are also stock count reports which the WFP is supposed to share with GoU but this is never done. When OPM demands for their copy, a report is sent to Geneva calling it harassment. OPM naturally needs this information to plan and address the refugee grievances if any. This lack of information made it impossible for the GoU to know of any diversions of food by for example by transporters hired by WFP/Samaritan Purse if any. When it comes to verification of the refugee register, which is supposed to be done at least once every 2 years, the OPM does the job but with significant participation of the UNHCR. They actually have their staffers everywhere overseeing verification in the refugee settlements. Such employees verify the registration figures as compiled and submitted by OPM. UNHCR gets the registers, verifies them whereafter it passes them on to WFP for purposes of food distribution. UNCHR participates in every stage right from planning to the closure of the verification activity. In fact the temporary staffers who serve as data entrants are hired and remunerated by UNHCR. This simply means there is no way, inflation of the refugee figures (if any) can take place without UNHCR staffers acquiescing to it. WFP too, which delivers food to the final user, has an opportunity to detect this inflation and blow the whistle but has never.
FOOD/CASH LOGS:
These logs are used to request for food by the WFP for delivery to the refugees. They are digitalized and systems-generated. These logs are generated from the data supplied by the OPM from the registration exercise. UNHCR verifies this data before generating the logs and issuing them to WFP. If there is any problem, they send it back for rectification. There is simply too much scrutiny to the extent for anything to go wrong, there must have been connivance between OPM, UNHCR and WFP staffers. Sometimes cash logs are used whereby refugees are given cash to go buy the food themselves. On using the logs to request for and obtain the food, WFP passes it on to Samaritan Purse their implementing partner. On behalf of WFP, Samaritan Purse works out the distribution schedules and also liaises with food management committees (in each camp) to mobilize the beneficiaries regarding the food distribution dates and time so that they each turn up to pick their monthly food rations. Samaritan Purse ideally will only give food to a refugee who is on the register meaning distribution is another level at which ghosts can be identified and exposed. WFP has never done this, at least not anywhere on record.
The remainder of the food is supposed to be returned to the stores and a report to that effect (showing unused tonnage) is filed to the OPM. This hasn’t been done by the very contemptuous UNHCR and WFP staffers hence creating loopholes that Malango refers to in her memo. “The only OPM work in the food distribution chain is to provide security in transit through police. OPM also provides security to all parties involved in the distribution of the food,” said one of the very knowledgeable sources we spoke to for this article. The same must ideally be the procedure if what is being distributed are the Non-Food Items (NFIs) which the UNHCR does by itself using NGO ARC as the implementing partner. To comment on this & other Mulengera news stories, reach us on 0703164755!
