By Our Reporters
Its official the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga is unhappy with some Parliamentary Committee leaders who stand accused of dubiously soliciting or accepting funding from external sources to carry out activities which are already sufficiently funded by the Parliamentary Commission. Only last week, Kadaga expressed her fury and rebuked MPs who are culpable for such conduct. In the same plenary session, Kadaga said she was very disturbed by MPs seeking such external funding and promised to meet all the leaders of Parliamentary Committees and their respective whips to share with them what awaits perpetrators. Many didn’t understand the background to Kadaga’s fury, something that prompted this news website to investigate to establish exactly why the Speaker wasn’t happy with her members.
OUR FINDINGS/DUBAI TRIP:
We have impeccably established that whereas Kadaga had always had rumors and ignored them, contemptuously treating them as such, she was recently contacted by State House whose boss President Museveni had been furnished with a comprehensive report from intelligence agencies. The report referred to the most recent benchmarking trip (26th April to 13th May 2018) MPs made to Dubai and Japan. In total 10 staff of parliament, majority of them MPs, travelled for Parliamentary assignment for a total of 19 days (each day fetches each $720 in per diem: bringing the total each MP officially bagged to $9,366/over Shs34m). These were members of the Parliamentary Committee on Tourism & Trade. Fort Portal Municipality MP Alex Ruhunda led the delegation which had 8 MPs and two Parliamentary staffers. They were in Dubai to investigate the physical presence, capacity & suitability of the companies hired by Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to implement the Pre-export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) program. This program seeks to ensure that all used vehicles being exported to Uganda meet certain minimum quality conditions. The Parliamentary investigation began late last year when Bulamogi MP Kenneth Lubogo petitioned Parliament disputing the suitability of one of the companies (Japan Export Vehicle Inspection Center/JEVIC). The other two companies in the picture were East Africa Automobile (EAA) and Jabal Kirimanjalo. In response to Lubogo’s petition, Speaker Kadaga on 10th January 2018 assigned the Trade Committee to comprehensively investigate all the other scandalous transactions regarding the UNBS management of the entire used vehicles pre-shipment inspection intervention. It wasn’t readily clear if the inquiry would extend to the $70,000 one of the interested companies is understood to have paid to some MPs to fortify its interests before the matter came to Parliament. Having conducted several hearing sessions (at which the likes of ex-Trade Minister Kahinda Otafiire, current Minister Amelia Kyambadde and ex-UNBS ED Telly Kahuma etc testified and gave evidence), the MPs late last month decided to fly to Dubai, UAE and Japan for fact-finding mission. The idea was to verify the utterances made to them when the representatives of interested companies/service providers (EAA, JABAL Kirimanjalo & JEVIC) made in their presentations when they appeared before the committee as part of the inquiry mandate.
CHAOS ERUPT;
It was while out there during the Dubai and Japan trip that chaos erupted and it all related to money and desire for unjust enrichment. Whereas Parliament officially facilitates each of the MPs with $720 (Shs2,664,000) per night spent out during the trip, some of the companies that the legislators were in Dubai/Japan to investigate were asked to avail cash (of course in dollars) to cater for the MPs’ accommodation and inland travel while in Dubai and Japan. They were also required to provide for the legislators’ meals and spend on their entertainment including sex marathons. The financial gratification demands became too much that some of the targeted companies’ executives had to find a way to report the matter to Kampala. And that is how the external intelligence services, that can never miss closely trailing MPs during such errands abroad, got wind of it. “It was becoming embarrassing and the matter had to reach the H/E [Museveni],” said a State House source. Because they stayed there for a total of 19 days, the MPs kept following up on their demands-sometimes with threats. Because State House kept getting these reports (mostly through top government officials that happen to be EAA’s godfathers in Kampala), it became too much and President Museveni had to pick the phone and directly raise the matter with Speaker Kadaga wondering why she was sending MPs out to do Parliamentary work without being facilitated. As Kadaga prepared to contact the team, one of the top officials at Parliament crossed over to her office to share the previous night’s experience. Incidentally one of the delegation members that had travelled to Dubai/Japan faced it rough when two male MPs from Western and Eastern Uganda ganged up on him/her demanding for their USD8,000. “We are told you are the one who picked our money for accommodation and inland travel from [the Company top executive]. Please give us our share or else we take action,” the two MPs reportedly ranted as they besieged their colleague. According to the State House source, quoting from the President’s external intelligence report, this targeted delegation member became fearful thinking the colleagues were going to strangle him/her and swiftly communicated to the senior official at Parliament seeking advice. “Pray for me these guys might kill me,” read one of the messages the distraught delegation member sent back to Kampala. This was later followed with a voice note the delegation member recorded and passed on as his/her dying declaration unsure that the next morning would dawn before the angry colleagues (with whom he/she shared the hotel) could do something suicidal over the magic $8,000 they kept demanding to partake. So the official in Kampala told Kadaga about all this and begged her to urgently intervene to restore sanity for the trip.
SPEAKER CONFIRMS;
To Kadaga, this information corroborated the representations State House had previously made to her regarding chaos on the same trip. On further investigation, the Speaker established that all this was true and there was actually much more. A gentleman called Rashid, who represents EAA/JABAL (one of the companies the MPs were in Dubai to investigate) became frustrated and resorted to avoiding the MPs who kept sending him text messages claiming he was obliged to do more than just finding for them accommodation and inland transport means while there. The ill-fated trip lasted between 26th April and 13th May 2018. Rashid wasn’t the only one facing this predicament because even other companies that were to be investigated by the MPs were ironically asked to materially facilitate the trip. “One company executive was asked to prepare an envelope of $6,000 for each MP and another special envelope of $10,000 for the most vocal committee members whose influence would be very critical at the report writing and presentation stage to the plenary. The financial pressure became too much for these companies and that is how Mzee’s external intelligence picked the intel,” said a reliable source associated with external security welfare of Uganda. “This clearly kills the integrity of the entire investigations and that is why Mzee will be commissioning his own separate inquiry whose findings will be contrasted with those of the MPs.” At some point, one of the officials representing EAA got fed up and diffused pressure around himself by telling the three MPs, who were most outspoken regarding the $8,000, not to “worry because my brother who represents JABAL will look after you more once you land in Japan.” What disturbed State House and the President even more were the intelligence reports he got that, whereas this was official work, some of the MPs didn’t even want Betty Aketch (Uganda’s Ambassador to Japan) to become aware or involved at all in their visit yet protocol requires that the embassy officials get involved in helping them carry out appropriate due diligence on the companies.
VERIFICATION ACTIVITIES;
In their respective presentations to the committee during the hearing sessions in Kampala, the different companies had alleged many things against their competitors including calling them briefcase entities. So the MPs were determined and prepared to interface with all the companies except JEVIC which pulled out saying they aren’t interested in the Ugandan/UNBS deals anymore. EAA was among those whose operations were inspected others being JABAL Kirimanjalo, Quality Inspection Services and JINVEA/Association of Car Exporters to Uganda. At some point, chaos erupted when Kenneth Lubogo (who EAA officials keep claiming is their man) became angry and furiously told off Committee chairman Alex Ruhunda saying he wasn’t prepared to be part of the inspection covering Quality Inspection Services. It was unclear why Lubogo, who was very enthusiastic as members inspected EAA facilities, would all of a sudden coil when it came to Quality Inspection Services’ turn to be inspected. This was so notwithstanding the fact that the much favored EAA even didn’t have sufficient office space where to interact with the MPs from. They instead interacted with the committee from hotel room (Season Garden 441 Shimotsuruma) whereafter the legislators were introduced to a very modest room which they were shocked to be told is the office of the mighty EAA which wants to be exclusively contracted the PVoC inspection job which fetches $125 (Shs462,500) for each Uganda-bound vehicle they inspect in Japan before shipment. EAA is owned by a Tanzanian national who is also a Japanese citizen. During their interface at the hotel, the MPs fired a total of 25 questions which EAA officials answered but refused/failed to furnish the team with any of the relevant documentations the legislators were demanding for. The MPs also demanded documentation concerning staff profiles and it turned out that the only two blacks it employs are internship students from Tanzania and Zambia yet the UNBS contract specifications envisages appropriate employment levels of black Africans preferably Ugandans whenever possible. Armed with the 16th January 2015 letter by the Japan Accreditation Services Board, the MPs also sought answers regarding the circumstances under which EAA’s ISO certification was cancelled. The answers they got weren’t satisfactory. The other areas that intrigued some MPs regarding EAA’s suitability bordered on conflict of interest because there are allegations that, whereas the company wants to be contracted by UNBS to do pre-shipment inspection of used vehicles in Japan, they (company/EAA) are also involved in the vehicle importation business into Uganda; the very same market they want to regulate on UNBS’ behalf. Ironically, even after having such a difficult interaction with MPs, EAA executives found it necessary to treat the MPs to a luxurious dinner at Hotel Yakahoma where eats and expensive whisky (Chivas) flowed like there was no tomorrow. On getting excessively intoxicated, one of the MPs dared EAA executives to give each member $7,000 for their entertainment inclusive of some bonking sessions with the best slay queens in the Japanese Yamato city. In Japan, besides EAA the other companies visited and examined included QISJ, JUMVEA Company, Trust Co Ltd and Beforward. On becoming excited after the EAA dinner, some MPs confronted the delegation head insisting that he calls up Dubai-based Jabal Kirimanjalo officials with demands that organizes $7,000 for each member, a thing the chairman vehemently declined. The MPs also visited Nagoya which is the biggest exporter of cars to Uganda from Japan. In the interaction there, the Nagoya officials told them they didn’t know EAA to be among companies involved in pre-shipment inspection of vehicles unlike other service providers like JEVIC. In total, the delegation spent 19 days in Dubai and Japan. This in total fetches for each MP close to $9,366/over Shs34m in the official perdiem (at the rate of $720 per day). This is the reason why, on the prompting of the President, Speaker Kadaga is happy that leaders who are so well facilitated can be claimed to have had emissaries approaching foreign companies (being investigated) to facilitate them for Parliamentary work.
WHY SEPARATE M7 PROBE:
Sources close to him told this news website why Museveni is bent on having his own separate inquest. Firstly, State House considers that it was improper for Kenneth Lubogo, who is the petitioner, to be part of the team travelling to Dubai to investigate the very companies against which he complained. Then the other closely related anomaly is the inclusion of Hatib Katoto who isn’t a committee member. He was included only because the committee chair considered him an expert in the used Japanese car business because he runs one. “But he can be spared because he was very ethical throughout the trip and repeatedly reminded colleagues on the dangers of any of the companies being investigated to offer to facilitate their work,” an intelligence favorably said of Katoto adding that his expertise was indeed very useful to other members though his ideas were ignored most of the time. State House sources furiously likened Lubogo’s inclusion to being prosecutor and judge in one’s own case. Secondly the fact that both Chairman (Alex Ruhunda) and Vice Chairlady Betty Engora went on the same trip has escalated State House suspicion that indeed this was a controversial trip that ought to have been handled more cautiously. And finally is the fact that representatives of some of the companies visited have (without being prompted) been crying out to authorities in Kampala complaining of being asked for colossal sums of money to fund investigations in which they are accused entities. It was further claimed that some of these friendly regime officials in Kampala have since advised some of the Dubai/Japan-based companies to formally write to the President and Speaker complaining of the financial harassment they suffered during the legislator’s time there. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
