NRM Primaries 2020: Byandala MP has finally lost (!) and his corrupt legacy…

In Luweero, the results for the National Resistance Movement Primaries are finally out. That the MP for Katikamu County North, who has represented in Parliament since 2006. This man has survived a lot and gotten away with it.

This man being Abraham Byandala… the people of Luweero is tired of this man. He has had three terms. He should be famous for getting away with the thieving of the monies supposed to go to building the Mukono-Katosi Road. A scandal he has gotten easily away from… he got acquitted, but still this will always linger on.

Not only that one, but this man has punched a journalist. Media activists wanted him tried for assault of the journalist.

As an MP and Minister, he used the time in office for shady deals. Both with Chinese contractors and ensuring riches for other cronies within the NRM Party. That is why there wasn’t only Mukono-Katosi Road Scandal, but also the NAMO-Scandal. A scandal where the UNRA was supposed to contract to build 4 bridges in Karamoja. However, all the monies ended up in the pockets of family members of Minister Lokeris in Rukiga. That is the sort of favours that has saved him, as he has made friends and therefore, gotten away with it.

In 2011 after he had to defend the budget of his Ministry to the Parliament Committee, a Parliament Committee he was part of in the previous term. He asked for more time, because he was trying to confuse the MPs and not explaining the documents delivered to the Committee. That shows that he was a useful pawn as an MP and did the bidding of others.

That is why its good that Byandala is done as MP. That he lost in Luweero. He used his time to scams and scandals. Enriching himself and the ones around him. Using the Ministry and his position to help himself. He didn’t do it for the betterment of the Republic.

What is worse is that it didn’t cost him. Yes, his synonymous with some road scandals, but he got away with it. The usage of UNRA and Road Development to get funds. That says it all.

Byandala had no problem doing that. So, nobody should be sad his not in office on the fourth term. The loss yesterday proves people was tired of his ways. He couldn’t survive forever.

The man should answer for his corrupt behaviour, Just that two scandals created headlines. We can wonder what else he did or knew about, but didn’t leak out. As I doubt these two was the only ones in the years in office. When you can do it at this scale. There are someone who knew and others who pocketed funds this way. That’s why Dot Services is a thing and other sketchy companies getting road contracts. This is known… and was a thing Byandala did too.

So, Byandala has now fallen and it was about time. Peace.

Press Release: Respect of Professional Rights of Media Women is Paramount (24.03.2016)

UMWA 24.03.2016 P1UMWA 24.03.2016 P2

Byandala Assaults Female Journalist (Youtube-Clip)

“Minister without Portfolio Abraham Byandala, currently on trial over the UGX24 billion Mukono-Katosi road scam, assaults female journalist” (NBS TV Uganda, 2016)

Interesting findings from the AG report on “Central Government and Statutory Corporations” – Part One!

Ugandan shillings

Here I will Travers through the report of Auditor General of Uganda’s Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 2015. This is on: “CENTRAL GOVERNMENT AND STATUTORY CORPORATIONS”. I will take the quotes and stories that seem to show parts of how the Government of Uganda works and what the Auditor General have cared about addressing in this specific report. Take a look! This here is Part one!

What it contains:
“This is Volume two of my Annual Report to Parliament and it covers financial audits carried
out on Central Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies, Universities and Uganda
Missions abroad” (…)”Section 2 presents my findings and audit opinion on Government of Uganda Consolidated Financial Statements including major observations” (P: 25).

kampala road work

Nugatory expenditure:
“Government paid UGX.26.1bn during the period under review as delayed settlements of obligations arising from contracts for construction services, Court awards, and contributions to international organizations etc” (P: 34). Comment: The government has no issues wasting giant sums of settlements it seems, shouldn’t’ there be away to not use the money on these settlements?

Unsustainable pension liability:
“The Ministry of Public Service recorded an outstanding pension and gratuity liability of UGX.199,255,907,539 as at 30/6/2015 (up from UGX.108,681,159,047 as at 30/6/2014). It was noted that the gratuity and pension arrears continue to accumulate, a fact which the Accounting Officer has attributed to inadequate budgetary provisions over the years” (P: 35). Comment: There been press release from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development during 2015 doesn’t seem like they want to fix it, instead blame the pensioners. Well, they have learned from their master right?

Understocking of the Government petroleum strategic reserves:
In 2012, the Government of Uganda and a private petroleum company entered into a concessional agreement to refurbish, restock, maintain and manage the petroleum strategic reserve facility at Jinja. Despite the concession requiring the operator to ensure that 40% (12million litres) of the storage capacity of the products is available at all times, I noted during inspection in September 2015, there was only 274,000 litres of petrol and 331,000 litres of diesel in stock compared to the required stock levels of 20,000,000 and 10,000,000 litres respectively” (P: 38). Comment: Doesn’t seem like they follow the guidelines from 2012 and proves that the Governmental agencies doesn’t follow the plans they have or have the procurement to buy what their supposed to. This here is just barely enough considering the use of oil and diesel!

JinjaRoad Roundabout Kampala

Construction of Kampala-Entebbe expressway:
“It was observed that the unit cost for the Kampala-Entebbe expressway was US$ 2.315 million per lane kilometre while the similar expressway was US$ 1.204 million per lane kilometer” (…)”This is less than half of the cost of Kampala-Entebbe Expressway which is US$.9.261 million per Km” (…)”However, a review of the services provided by the consultant’s revealed duplication of activities as the originally recruited private firm serves the same purpose as the international firm” (P: 38-39). Comment: This here has been discussed and been put out there, but still proves the misuse of funds, especially when one of the reasons is that you have two companies that have the same role on the site, instead of only one, and that adds the price per kilometer of roads.

Mismanagement of funds under the Ministry of Local Government (MoLG):
“the diverted funds revealed that UGX.3,827,011,454 remained unaccounted for and UGX.635,621,910 was questioned due to inappropriate accountabilities” (P: 39). Comment: Unaccountable use of funds is a beauty and proves that funds have been used without waivers or accounted for; where it has been used is something that we can ask, but they could by Kit-Kat bars in Masindi or extra bottle of cokes in Lira for all we know.

Abim Hospital 2014 P3

Fixed budget allocation for essential medicines and health supplies:
The annual budget allocation of UGX.218bn for essential medicines and health supplies to all health facilities across the country has remained constant since 2011/2012 despite the remarkable increase in the number of patients” (P: 42). Comment: That the money are stagnate while the amount of patience goes up shows quickly; why the hospitals doesn’t have the necessary medicine? That is the simple reason why they don’t have enough.

Regional coordination and monitoring framework for Northern Corridor Integration
Projects:
For example amounts totalling to UGX4.2bn was disbursed to fund the power interconnection and the Hoima-Lokichar-Lamu oil pipeline. However, the protocols do not provide for regional coordination and monitoring as well as the audit framework to provide an independent assurance on the utilization of joint funds” (P: 43). Comment: Money to a project that don’t have a framework for the regional coordination and can’t utilization of the funds, that means they are just sitting in the fund, without any use or monitoring it.

Compensations of Project Affected Persons (PAPS):
“Review of the compensations for the Project Affected Persons (PAPs) on the two projects of Mukono-Kyetume-Katosi road and LPC Busega revealed inconsistencies in the names of the PAPs appearing in the Chief Government Valuers report and those compensated” (…)”A sum of UGX.1.3 bn paid without resolving the inconsistencies was questionable” (P: 44-45). Comment: That already over-expensive road project that has gone over margin and had issues with the contractors of the road-building. So that the government haven’t compensated the once that lost land where the road where built. Therefore the project is even more expensive, since this will be add-ons to the ones that already registered and billed for.

Budget performance-Budget shortfall:
“21 entities budgeted to receive UGX. 2,272,017,747,273, out of which UGX. 1,481,698,945,173 was received translating into a 65% out-turn for the financial year. This left a funding gap of UGX. 790,318,802,100 (35%)” (P: 55). Comment: This here proves how the budget is underfunding and not procuring from the Ministry of Finance, Planning Economic Development (MoFPED) to deliver the cash in-due time to the projects and other state entities that supposed to get funding to do their work. The ministry with biggest shortfall was the Ministry of Energy and Mineral!

MoFPED – Payment of avoidable interest on VAT:
“It was noted that as of November, 2014, the outstanding VAT obligations for BIDCO stood at UGX.744,420,170, included in this figure was late payment interest charge of UGX.168,747,557. Accordingly, a sum of UGX.700,000,000 was paid to URA towards settlement of the tax arrears” (P: 93). Comment: Bidco got to pay less to cash to URA then expected in a settlement, instead of paying everything they needed as they hadn’t cleared in their VAT. So the government was not getting what they we’re entitled so the company of BIDCO got off cheap.

AfDB STATS

Payment of the fourth instalment under ADB Subscription:
“It was noted that the payment of Uganda’s 4th instalment of UDS.1,293,299 which became due on 16th March, 2015 had not been made. As a result, the callable shares related to the missed instalment had been suspended in line with the Board of Governors resolution on the sixth general capital increase of the bank meeting” (P: 95). Comment: This here proof that they don’t take the place in the Pan-African Bank institution, only take the loans from African Development Bank, but not taking charge in paying dues to it.

Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID):
“It was noted that the PIBID project has been operating without an approved strategic plan. The strategic plan is supposed to guide the budgeting process by creating integrated link with the annual work plans which feed into the budget to ensure effective service delivery and achievement of set project objectives” (…)”During the financial year 2014/2015, the PIBID project had a budget provision of UGX.9bn out of which only UGX.2.7bn was released as vote on account and as a result, activities worth UGX.6,682,145,000 were not under taken. (P: 100- 103). Comment: 6,3bn was not released so that is under the double, but not triple of the ones that has procured to the PIBID.

Department of Ethics and Integrity:
“Directorate’s approved structure/establishment indicated that whereas 60 posts were approved, only 46 had been filled by the year-end leaving 14 vacant” (…)”that withholding tax amounting to UGX.4,662,524 due to URA was not withheld from seven (7) service providers and as such, funds were not remitted. Failure to withhold tax exposes the entity to a risk of penalties and interest charges by URA which may lead to nugatory expenditure” (P: 111-113). Comments: This here proves the defaults on the hiring of people in the department and also mismanage off tax.

This here must been seen as interesting; the report is big, so there is more to come. This here will be series with many pieces as the actions of government is to interesting to NOT be put on blast. Peace.

Reference:
Office of the Auditor General – The Annual Report for the Year Ended 30th June 2015 – Central Government and Statutory Corporations 30th June 2015.

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