Uganda: Civil Society Position on Tax Revenue Measures for FY 2017/18 (21.04.2017)

The NRM Regime have during the FY2015/2016 fallen behind on paying out UGX 2.7 trillion!

Today I am dropping numbers that are devastating, as the numbers of debt that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) isn’t paying, show’s sufficient motives for malpractice when it comes to budgeting and the structure of payments. There are certainly not enough transparency and clear audit of the state reserves, as the State is misusing seriously amount of funds. The NRM Regime and their President should be ashamed by their record.

Emmanuel Katongole is the Head Information Technology in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED) in Uganda on the 12th April 2017, he dropped a document on their web-page that show’s the domestic arrears of the Republic of Uganda in the last Financial Year.

If you wonder what Domestic Arrears means: “The amount by which a government has fallen behind in its payment of interest and principal on debt to lenders within its own country” (Encyclo.co.uk). So Katongole will literately show how bad the National Resistance Movement is on paying their bills and expenditure. All the sums of this report is in Ugandan Shillings (UGX).

Like under the Office of the President and the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) who itself leaves arrears in the margin of 3.8bn shillings and 8bn shillings in other payable arrears. That one part of the budget and current audit of the Office of the President as the total of verified arrears at June 2016 was 37bn shillings alone. So the Office of the President owes a lot of funds that it hasn’t paid, not only for the ISO!

The State House by the verified arrears at June 2016 was 1bn shillings. What is more unsettling is that the Pensions and Gratitude for Veterans are the sum of 183bn shillings, Survivors 315bn shillings, EXGRATIA 10bn and UNLA 26bn shillings. The Ministry of Defense by June 2016 verified arrears was 718bn shillings! So the MoD are a lax payer of their expenses and expenditure.

Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs owes verified arrears by June 2016 the amount of 684bn. Shillings Court Awards unpaid by the Ministry is 203bn shillings. The Electoral Commission has growing verified arrears by June 2016 because of Unsettled penal insterest for URA in the total sum of 3.2bn shillings. Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has by June 2016 billed up verified arrears by 283bn shillings.

This is just some of the government that has not paid their dues and their expenses, their salaries or pensions, even their lacking covering of funds to pay debt, either internal or external. So the National Resistance Movement are clearly running an economy and fiscal policy that isn’t healthy for the republic.

Just to drop the total sum that the Government of Uganda has failed to pay or failed payments on their debt are by June 2016 the total of 2.7 Trillions of Uganda Shillings! Which is an insane number and amount of misspent monies by the state. The strategy by the Republic to fail so miserably cannot be sustainable, as the invoices and the target to pay their debt should be the most important. Still, the NRM doesn’t seem to think so. They are surely missing steps to having a sound economy when the verified arrears are hitting 2.7 trillions by June 2016. So the Financial Year of 2015/2016, the Ugandan government failed to serve out over 2 trillion of their needed expenses!

What is troubling that the year before, the total state had not paid on their debt and failing expenses in the Financial Year of 2014/2015 as by June 2015 we’re totally 1.389 or close to 1.4 Trillion shillings. So the miss-match between FY2014/2015 and FY 2015/2016 are 1.3 Trillion shillings. So the clear picture is that the Election Year for the NRM is very, very expensive.

Just think about that… eat the bill and pound on the amount of lost monies in the system. Peace.

 

Opinion: These two ideas shouldn’t be thing in 2017: Goats for tuition fees and Jerrycan-Irrigation!

NRM in July 2016 in Kakinga in Western Uganda.

In the Republic of Uganda and Zimbabwe there are two issues that should not occur or need to happen, as the societies under Zimbabwean African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and National Resistance Movement (NRM), that President Robert Mugabe and President Yoweri Museveni has been the Executives for decades.

These two republics has both their issues concerning these gentleman, though not the same. Still, the republics has some dire needs. You know so, when President Museveni has to spread this message in the year of 2017:

I continue to encourage farmers to use drip irrigation. Even as we wait for government to roll out mass irrigation, farmers can irrigate their crops with basic tools like bottles. No one should let seedlings go to waste on claims of drought yet we are surrounded by water” (Yoweri Museveni, 16.04.2017).

The Jerrycan and bottle irrigation mantra in the land of steady progress, you can wonder and pound about the agriculture reforms that was about to happen when the NRM came into power. Where the wealth creation and the cash crops we’re supposed to change the economic landscape. Still, since the Movement ceased power in 1986, the same President as back-then has to spread the message of a drip-drop irrigation system based on bottles and jerrycans. Instead of modern agriculture, because of how he misused the state reserves and the donated aid. Therefore, the lacking facilitation of agriculture. So it is sad to know that the President Museveni has to propagandize the jerrycan irrigation system, like it is a fantastic invention and something that would really be a paradigm shift.

Than you have in Zimbabwe, the county of the Lancaster House Agreement, the ZANU-PF elite and the Bond-Notes, with a massive movement behind the voices of opposition, as well as the financial troubles under President Mugabe. Who has turned the Southern African breadbasket unto a food-import heaven as his land-reforms has destroyed the agricultural production as well as the economic climate. Therefore this news shouldn’t be a thing of 2017!

Parents who cannot raise tuition fees for children can offer livestock in lieu of payment or do chores for learning institutions, a Cabinet minister has said. The Sunday Mail understands that several State-run primary schools in Glen View, Harare have already adopted the arrangement. Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora told this paper last week, “Our schools have to be flexible and ensure those who do not have money to pay fees can work. For example, if there is a builder in the community, he/she must be given that opportunity to work as a form of payment of tuition fees” (…) “On the issue of livestock, the community has to arrange a market where everyone participates; from the school authorities, local leadership and parents themselves to avoid parents being duped” (Gwete, 2017).

So in the proud republic of Zimbabwe the Cabinet Minister Dr. Lazarus Dokora, says parents who doesn’t have enough cash to pay tuition fees can now pay in livestock or goats. We know by now that the faith in the Bond-Notes is abysmal, still that the Republic has such little cash flow; that can take animals as payments. Shows the neglect of the state, the little money circulation and the financial vows right now. If the financial market and the currency we’re in a better condition, than such massive amount of parents wouldn’t have to trade their goats and livestock so their kids can go to school.

That under President Mugabe, the citizens have to use their livestock and goats as trading tools, or even as currency because of the lack of stable financial policies. This shows the draconian state and what sort of government that is in charge. When they are more concerned about their Mercedes Benz’s than the population!

That the Zimbabwean people and citizens of the Republic run by Zanu-PF should feel betrayed by the lack of governance and care of the taxpayers funds. The Zimbabwean people should be in sorrow as even as their state is insufficient, it now has a plan not to only eat their monies, but also take their animals. So that the future of Zimbabwe can learn how to read and write, even type and some hopefully understanding better what it means to be a Statesmen. A Statesmen that cares about its constituent and their struggles, not just eat of it and leave them to rot. That is what the Zanu-PF elite does right now.

What we have have seen with these two stories is clear lack of policies and wish to intervene in the struggles of the citizens. We can see two governments, that is Zanu-PF and NRM, who clearly are both out-of-time and out-of-pocket as they scrap their best ideas to salvage some hope. The hope is that some can be duped by the idea and support the so-called progress. That it is progressive to take goats as currency to pay for tuition and the other revolutionary idea of using bottles and jerrycans to irrigate the dirt. That President Museveni and President Mugabe is over-due is proof with this. The milk is thick and nasty. The milk is not drinkable and if so you will vomit. The reality is that these men doesn’t see or doesn’t want to see.

They are eating of the plate and sells their propaganda, the own mindset of lies and deception, and it has been said so many times that the old-men believes. Even if it isn’t so. The manufactured reality and the destruction of the society, is the reasons for these tales, many factors involved, but the Presidents has been there through the stages. They have seen it all and created policies that has changed to this level of underdevelopment. If they really did care, than the countries would have looked different. If they would have created parliaments for serving cadres for the people and not their own bellies like right now. That is why many of them think these sort of policies are acceptable and even profess to them. Therefore, the republic’s are living in a state they doesn’t deserve and the citizens are used as pawns. Peace.

Reference:

Gwete, Wendy – ‘‘Pay school fees with goats, labour’ (15.02.2017) link:

http://www.sundaymail.co.zw/pay-school-fees-with-goats-labour/

Uganda: CSBAG – “Reducing Wastage and Curbing Inefficiences to Finance our Priorities for the FY 2017/2018 (09.04.2017)

Leaked U.S. Concept Note describes the wished changes in the UN Peacekeeping Operation Missions!

The United States delegation to the United Nations have leaked a document on planned discussion for the United Nations Security Council that are to be commenced in next month (April 2017). These notes are clearly setting the course and wish for the goals and ambition of the discussion in the UNSC. This concept note is supposed to be a Peacekeeping Operation Review. That would lead to certain decisions by the Member States and the Council Members.

The reason why the United States delegation to the UNSC about the Peacekeeping operation:

As of January 31, 2017, there were 99,034 uniformed personnel – including 85,408 troops and 12,786 police – serving in the 16 peacekeeping operations overseen by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, with an approved budget of $7.87 billion. UN peacekeeping is a vital aspect of the organization. However, a significant number of PKOs have mandates conceived years – in some cases decades – ago that are no longer supported by a political environment conducive to achieving the Council’s aims. It is crucial that missions contribute to increased safety and security, but they can also create a subsidized and unsteady peace that can quickly become a dependency that discourages long-term solutions. The UN becomes trapped in these frozen conflicts and peacekeeping missions that were initially conceived to provide temporary security to allow space for political solutions to take hold instead deploy for years without clear mandates or exit plans”.

Because of the cost, the longevity of the peacekeeping operations as they are creating a vacuum between the government hosts, the peacekeeping mission and the hostile forces. This is a consuming and makes it hard to generate any sort of sustainable peace, as the peacekeepers keeps a buffer and stops the need for a strong foundation of central government and their own security forces. They can always trust on the Blue Helmets to appear when needed and serve the citizens.

The United States has certainly ideas as this is their core idea for the discussion in the UNSC: “We encourage Council Members to consider whether current peacekeeping operations continue to be the best suited mechanisms for meeting the needs of those on the ground and achieving the Council’s political objectives, or if changes are needed”. So the US Mission to the UN wants the Peacekeeping Operations to achieve the political objectives and not be a stalemate operation that keeps the upkeep of unstability and uncertainty in the host nation. That is certainly a noble quest, but with that the UN Peacekeepers need to revise their missions, their mandate and their will of force, as their peacekeeping missions has been done in such diplomatic ways.

The United States delegates outcome of the review:

While no product is envisioned, we encourage the Council to apply the lessons and methods discussed in this meeting to our regular mandate review process to ensure that conditions still justify the missions and that political processes conceivably lead towards realistic, achievable solutions”.

That this is a quest and wishful thinking for the US mission, the United Nation needs votes and make sure the Members would strike agreement on the possible idea of changing the Peacekeeping Operations. The Blue Helmets are clearly on the loosing end of the stick, as their missions are not seen as fruitful, more like a costly operations not creating the effect and stage the peaceful transition in the host nations.

The UNSC and the Members should be hopeful to change the political climate and use the force to create the peace they are to make. If they weren’t peacekeepers than they wouldn’t be an issue, as if they we’re regular army on a territory, they should keep their citizens safe and the borders. The Peacekeepers has a mandate and mission, still they haven’t always been able to comply with that. Also, they have obligations not only to the United Nations, but to the host nations regime. Therefore, if the UNSC wants a bigger mission or extend their mandate, they still have to negotiate with the host nations.

The US Mission and the UNSC have to work on it and it is about time, as the AMISOM, MUNISCO, UNAMID, UNMISS and MINUSMA, who all should need a change of mandate and level of force if they should be properly creating the peace and make way for the central government. Peace.

Ewan Mawarire: “Zimbabwe is like a dumped baby, orphaned and abused” (Footage) – (20.03.2017) #ThisFlag

“Zimbabwe is like a dumped baby, orphaned and abused. Because of the abuse we find it hard to trust. Don’t make us promises you can’t keep, all we need is genuine care. #ThisFlag” (Evan Mawarire, 20.03.2017)

Report released today proves stronger military ties between the Russian and the Chinese!

Today, there we’re a released American report and study on how the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China are cooperative with their military. The military power and exercises proves that the Russians and Chinese are trading technologies and expertise, so the techniques of navy and of land force, and different terrain. Therefore, these relationship proves that added strength on the military powers of both China and Russia. As their support and trust also based on mutual gains from the exercises and trade of technology.

These ones are important as than the world knows the strength between the republics and their own self interest.

Russian arms trade to China:

Russia’s sale of Su-35 fighter jets to China (deliveries of which began in December 2016) will help the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) contest U.S. air superiority, provide China with technology that could help accelerate the development of its own advanced fighters, and serve as a valuable training and learning platform before China fields its next-generation aircraft” (…) “The Russian sale of the S-400 surface-to-air missile (SAM) defense system to China (with deliveries starting in 2018) should help China improve capital air defense and could assist the PLA in achieving increased air superiority over Taiwan if deployed to the Eastern Theater Command (bordering the Taiwan Strait). This SAM system would pose a challenge for Taiwan’s air assets in a potential cross-Strait conflict, the air assets of U.S. allies or partners in a South China Sea or East China Sea contingency, and U.S. aircraft, should the United States decide to become involved in such potential conflicts. The S-400 also could be used to help enforce China’s East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ)” (Meick, P: 3, 2017).

Russian arms sales to China, including the transfer of major weapons systems and defense technology as well as licensing agreements, have yielded benefits for both sides. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), since the fall of the Soviet Union nearly 80 percent of China’s total arms imports have come from Russia, and more than a quarter of all Russian arms exports have been shipped to China. From 1992 to 2006, Chinese military equipment procured from Russia totaled approximately $26 billion, according to some estimates. China’s major systems imported from Russia over this period helped to vastly improve PLA Air Force and Navy capabilities. Some of the notable procurements included Russian export versions of the Su-27 and Su-30 fighter, the S-300 SAM defense system, SOVREMENNYY-class guided missile destroyer, and KILO-class diesel electric submarine” (Meick, P:12, 2017).

Military Exercises:

Of the three major areas of defense engagement, military exercises most visibly demonstrate to the international community the commitment shared by China and Russia to close cooperation in the security realm. During a visit to Beijing in September 2015, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, “The most important issue of the Russian-Chinese military cooperation are the … military exercises. They contribute to improving combat training of the Armed Forces of [the] two countries, and demonstrate our readiness to counteract modern threats.” (Meick, P: 6, 2017).

Some observers speculated that China used a recent exercise to market guided missile frigates for Russia to buy, an indication of how far China’s defense industry has progressed over the last decade from its reliance on Russian technology. For example, after the naval exercise Joint Sea-2015 concluded, two PLA Navy Type 054A JIANKAI II-class frigates that participated in the exercise sailed through the Black Sea to a Russian naval base in advance of Russia’s World War II Victory Day 70th anniversary military parade; some analysts assessed this was intended, in part, to advertise the platform” (…) “First, Chinese demand for Russian arms waned as most of Beijing’s orders had been fulfilled and China’s defense industry had become advanced enough to fulfill more PLA requirements domestically. Second, the Chinese side expressed concerns about quality control deficiencies and contract disagreements involving the remaining orders. Third, Russia was unwilling to sell the higher-end systems that China was beginning to demand likely due to concerns that China’s increasing military capabilities could pose a future threat to Russia and that China’s practice of reverse-engineering Russian platforms would enable China to compete directly with Russia in the arms market” (Meick, P: 7, 2017).

As outlined in the authoritative PLA text Teaching Materials on Joint Operations (联合作战教程), the PLA defines “joint” as “two or more arms and services” and “two or more armed forces.” In the Chinese media and China’s own English-language publications, all China-Russia exercises are described as joint exercises. For the purposes of this report, “joint” in a military exercise or operations context is defined according to the U.S. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms: “Connotes activities, operations, organizations, etc., in which elements of two or more Military Departments participate.” An exception to this definition is any mention of “joint” by PLA or Chinese sources; in these cases, “joint” may refer to combined, joint, or both. U.S. Department of Defense, Joint Publication 1–02: Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, February 15, 2016, 121. http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/new_pubs/jp1_02.pdf; Tan Yadong ed., Teaching Materials on Joint Operations, Academy of Military Sciences Press, February 2013, 2–3. Translation” (Meick, P: 6, 2017).

Conclusion:

The three major components of military-to-military ties discussed in this report demonstrate such a trend. In terms of military exercises, the two militaries are staging increasingly complex exercises with an expanded geographic reach in strategically important areas, recently adding a new set of exercises on missile defense cooperation. Military-technical cooperation similarly shows significant progress in recent years, highlighted by a major uptick in the technical capability of Russian arms sales to China, wide-ranging strategic industrial partnerships in key defense sectors, and joint production deals and other cooperation on advanced military and dual-use systems. Finally, Chinese and Russian defense officials are holding more meetings at higher levels in the military bureaucracy than they did in the past, signaling closer coordination” (Meick, P: 23, 2017).

I think this was interesting enough, the relationship between Russia and the China. This will be moves that should be looked after, as the strength of military power, will also affect the others who wish to secure their borders and their resources. The military technology and the exercises proves the new relationship between the neighbors. However, if the relationship is only for internal powers or to counter NATO or other military partnership is not easy to know. This has been significantly focused on certain sales and sort of exercises on terrain both armies need. Just like the Russian Military needs to use the navy and trade LADA sub-marines to China. Peace.

Reference:

Meick, Ethan – ‘China-Russia Military-to-Military Relations: Moving Toward a Higher Level of Cooperation – U.S. – China, Economic and Security Reviews Commission’ (20.03.2017)

Zimbabwe: 2016/2017 Flood Distaster Domestic Appeal for Assistance + Donation list (15.03.2017)

Trump Organization have licenced 34 trademarks since February 2017 in China!

Today thanks to some people leaking to Chinese Gazette documents for a serious Industrial and Commerce Authority, I today found a little scoop on the ways Trump Organization does business, as they are clearly active in China. That might be reason why one of the most mentioned nations during campaign was China from the now President Trump. Therefore, take a look at this!

On the 27th February 2017, the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce of the People’s Republic of China gazetted new trademarks that prove the use of Chinese Industry in production of labels for the United States President Donald J. Trump. Still, as he claims “America First” his companies continue to produce and licence their production abroad.

The Gazette from the Chinese Authorities of Industrial and Commerce Trade Marks for dozens of Donald Trump products, alone 10 Trade Marks in his name and owned by businesses to the Fifth Avenue headquarters of the Trump Organization.

The second batch of Trump Trade Marks we’re gazetted on the 6th March 2017 was issued about 24 more Trade Marks through the authority. Since my Chinese isn’t that fluent, I don’t know on what sort of products or what industrial trade mark these are put on. Still, this shows the ways of using the cheap workforce and possible export to the United States the Trump Organization does. When I could find in the documentation with address and in the name of the Trump or where the Trump Tower is.

Therefore, the will of putting ‘America First’ is only in the words and not in action of his own businesses or trading. That is just for the citizens, not for the business and corporate world. Since Trump Organization has by these gazetted Trade Marks initially started or secured production of 24 products in the Republic of China. That cannot be seen as policy of his own government, who wants to punish other businesses for importing instead of producing their products abroad.

Certainly, the sons and daughters don’t care about the impression or even President Trump shows careless acts of tact by doing this. They are not following the same protectionist ways that he preaches and he wants to achieve. Therefore, the double standard are proven with this and how easily the Trump Organization can get licences in China, but the President expect big-business to stay in the United States. Peace.

Opinion: ZANU-PF continued problems with Whites, but no issues with the Chinese!

santions Mugabe

Certainly the loans and development projects as well as the infrastructure paid by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that supports the Zimbabwean state and the regime of Zimbabwean African National Union – Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF). This under President Robert Mugabe, that has had an issues with the white people since they cut the loans and aid from the Western Hemisphere, therefore the Zanu-PF has to support and sustain the ones delivering funds to keep the state afloat. Like these to statements from President Mugabe and Finance Minister P.A. Chinama!

Mugabe’s problem with the White:

“Mugabe said in an excerpt carried by the state-run Herald newspaper : “We would want to see our people turned into entrepreneurs. Have we really become producers of our own goods, have we become the masters of our own economy, or are we still thinking of whites as the best entrepreneurs and Africans as laborers for these entrepreneurs?” (Gaffey, 2017).

Finance Minister Chinamasa on the Chinese:  

“He told a recent meeting organized by the Confederation of the Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) Manicaland Chapter: “I often have local business people in my office complaining about the Chinese dominance in the country. But, my question is where are you when the Chinese come and do the same businesses in your area?  You must copy the way they are doing those businesses.” (Masekesa, 2017).

The Chinese has offered millions of dollars to ICT, Festivals, Security Firms and debt to fulfil the needed fiscal funds the Zimbabwean republic needs. The giant amount of funds as the republic needs the fresh funds as they sell resources and such to the Chinese. Therefore the join-ventures and hiring of Chinese to work in Zimbabwe comes with the agreements and loans for infrastructure. This is offers that haven’t come from the former British or American to the Zimbabwean republic. Either from other nations in the Western Hemisphere as the sanctions and others has hit the nation. Therefore the hatred towards the west and the love of the Chinese!

p-chinamasa-1

The Chinese get support and love from the Zanu-PF regime, not because they are gentle and kind, that is because they give the needed support the Mugabe administration needs at this time. If let us say that all of a sudden Switzerland or Belgium gave in the same amount and also put their working squads on the outside of Bulawayo, than Chinamasa and Mugabe would sound differently.

So that Mugabe continues with the Pan-African vision while his Finance Minister knows the value of the financial and industrial power the Chinese gives the nation. Therefore the hatred for Europeans and Whites comes with the sanctions and the misgivings. Because in the past President Mugabe said this about the British:

The basic injustice of this unequal economic system does not arise from the fact that those few are white in colour, although that racial dimension certainly aggravates it, but rather from the fact that the majority were deprived and impoverished by the minority. And so, even if the present white owners of property and natural resources, the need for a socialist revolution would still remain urgent. A bourgeoisie does not cease to be exploitative merely because its colour has turned black or because it is now national rather than foreign. On this subject, I wish to express utter dismay at the bourgeois tendencies that are affecting our leadership at various levels of Government. When, for example, we established a system of local government in both rural and urban areas, we were of the strong belief that democracy would further be enhanced by giving power to the people through local councils” (Robert Mugabe, 3rd Anniversary of Independence 18th April 1983).

We can see that even in early starts of the liberation and the early years of the tenure under President Mugabe, he still was focused on the whites, it took decades before his will and tendency to blame the Whites for the issues, instead of the policies and economic framework that the Zimbabwean republic needs. Still, the troubling fact is now that White is the problem no matter what, even as the Republic has been run and the laws have come to fix the problems of inequality. The Republic struggles still with the same issue apparently that it did in the 1980s, if the President offered the problems of white entrepreneurs over other tribes in Zimbabwe.

So he will pound on the Whites, but trust me none in Zanu-PF will ever try to say anything to offend the Chinese or the ones supporting funds from China. P.A. Chinamasa and President Mugabe would not cross and bite the hands of the ones that is feeding it. That is why the same figures will address the Whites in other regard than the Chinese. So we will see if the Zimbabwean state and officials will address the Chinese differently when they stop funding their operations and their government institutions, like the Whites did. Peace.

Reference:

Gaffey, Conor – ‘EU RENEWS SANCTIONS ON MUGABE AS ZIMBABWE PRESIDENT TURNS 93’ (21.02.2017) link: http://europe.newsweek.com/robert-mugabe-birthday-zimbabwe-sanctions-559071

Masekesa, Clayton – ‘Zimbabwe: Don’t Be Jealous Of Chinese – Chinamasa’ (21.02.2017) link: http://afrika54news.com/2017/02/21/zimbabwe-dont-be-jealous-of-chinese-chinamasa/