Parliamentary report exposes the greed and connivance in the theft of cooperators’ money:  Part A

KAMPALA, November 16, 2023 – A Report of Sectoral Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry has unearthed the rot in the compensation of cooperatives for the war losses incurred during the political instabilities in the 1970s and 1980s, with the MPs partly blaming Trade Ministry PS Geraldine Ssali Busuulwa for the mess.

On August 25, 2023, the Speaker of Parliament Anita Among instructed the Committee to conduct an inquiry into the status, governance, resourcing and value for money for public funds allocated to cooperatives during the period of FY 2021/12-2022/23.

According to Among, there were some queries regarding the budgetary allocations and disbursements to various cooperatives during the period spanning financial year 2011/12 up to 2022/23, which raised red flags as to whether the public funds were disbursed to beneficiary cooperatives and utilised for the intended purposes.

In the financial year 2016/2017, government had instituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee led by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives [MTIC] to verify claims by Cooperative Societies for assets and properties that were destroyed during wars and political insurgencies during the 1970s and 1980s.

However, prior to 2016/17, compensation claims to Cooperative Societies and Unions were handled by Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs (MJCA), where a total of Shs 6.97 billion had been paid through MJCA to various cooperative societies and unions in the country.

Meanwhile, from 2016/17 to 2022/23, compensation claims worth Shs 137.86bln have been paid through MTIC, the MPs note in their, “Report of the Sectoral Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry on the Inquiry into the Governance of; and Value for Money for Budgetary Appropriations to Cooperative, October 2023”.

According to the report, Approved Budget Estimates, Ministerial Policy Statements and Budget Committee reports for FY 2016/17 to FY 2022/2023 indicate that a total of Shs 172.77bln has been appropriated by parliament to MTIC for compensation of war loss claims for cooperative unions and societies.

The Committee notes that whereas the Finance ministry released Shs 109.84bln to MTIC to pay cooperatives, the actual payments MTIC made to cooperatives was Shs 140.36bln. “The Committee was informed by MTIC that MJCA paid Shs 6.97bln hence the total compensation made by the government is Shs 147.22bln which is over and above the money allocated to the compensation budget item by 37.38bln,” the MPs said.

The committee established that the above variances were a result of diversions and mischarges committed overtime by MTIC to cater for compensation at the expense of other budget lines/ priorities.

According to the committee report, as of June 24, 2023, 28 cooperative unions had been paid a total of Shs 147.22bln [leaving a balance of Shs 85.70bln] out of Shs 232bln verified, although the claim of Shs 620.78bln had been presented by cooperatives.

 Some of the cooperatives compensated

Some of the major recipients of the money include Masaka Cooperative Union Ltd. [Shs 15.36bln], but still demanding Shs 2.35bln, Busoga Growers Cooperative Union Ltd.[Shs 15.07bln], but still demands Shs 4.55bln, North Bukedi Cooperative Union Ltd.[Shs 8.2bln], but still demands Shs 3.25bln, Bunyoro Growers Cooperative Union Ltd.[Shs 2.50bln], but demands Shs 2.36bln, Teso Cooperative Union Ltd.[Shs 9.13bln], but still demands Shs 7.18bln [Lango Cooperative Ltd.[Shs6.94bln], but still demands Shs 050bln, and Masaaba Cooperative Union Ltd.[Shs 7bln], but still demands Shs3.36bln.

Payment made in excess or outside the allocated funds

The committee report says a total of Shs 48.77bln worth of compensation paid between 2019/20 and 2022/23 was either made in excess or completely outside the amounts allocated to specific cooperatives in MTIC workplan.

According to the report, five notable cooperatives were compensated in excess or outside the allocated amounts. They are: Lambuli Central Pulpery Cooperative Society [Shs 4.7bln], Jinja Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd.by Shs 4,8bkn, Buyaka Cooperative Society by Shs 3.5bln, Masaaba Cooperative Union by Shs 5bln, Bumwambu Cooperative Society Ltd.by Shs 6.7bln, Masaka Cooperative Union by Shs 7bln, and Bwavumpologoma Growers Cooperative Union Ltd.by Shs 2.75bln.

How Inter-Ministerial Committee Became Redundant

In a bid to expedite payments for war loss compensations to cooperatives, Cabinet in 2016 constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee known as Verification Committee, comprising 15 officials from different, which was given terms of reference as; analyse documentary evidence on the war loss claims, hold meetings with cooperative officials, and community leaders, conduct field trips and carry out ground assessment exercises, and compile a report to Permanent Secretary MTIC among other terms of references.

However, the MPs in their report say the MTIC PS Ssali constituted another verification committee in her ministry, which rendered the Inter-Ministerial Committee redundant. The committee Ssali set up in a letter dated March 21, 2022, included MTIC officials: Robert W. Mpakibi, Assistant Commissioner, Cooperative Development; Moses Mugamba, Senior Cooperative Officer; Ambrose Mugweri, Cooperative Officer; Marias Kamukunda, Cooperative Officer; Rogers Okambo, Cooperative Officer; and Scovia Tusubira, Training Officer; as well as a government valuer., although some of the members were later replaced by new ones.

The above MTIC committee [War Debts Claims Committee] verified the debt claims only five cooperatives as selected by Ssali. They included: East Acholi Cooperative Union, Lango Cooperative Union, Busoga Growers Cooperative Union, Bugisu Cooperative Union, and Bwavumpologoma Growers Union, with the last cooperative said to have been founded by Ssali’s grandfather Dr Adolf Kiwanuka, raising the issue of risk of conflict of interest on the side of the PS.

Much as the MTIC committee verified the cooperatives’ claims, the MPs in their report say Ssali overstepped her powers to constitute the MTIC committee, which they say it is a duplication, illegitimate, ill-intentioned, and its continuous operations as an illegality.

The MPs note that since Ssali’s committee had only one staff from the Office of the Chief Government Valuer, its composition lacked the required technical competencies and attributes to conduct verification exercises on war loss claims submitted by cooperatives “which is why they have failed to conclusively verify any cooperative to date.”

MTIC had no clear criteria for verification

The MPs say MTIC did not have a clearly laid down criteria to guide the verification committee. For instance, the legislators say that although Bwavumpologoma Cooperative Union, and South Bukedi Cooperative Union originally submitted war loss claims of Shs 101.55bln, and Shs 83bln, respectively, they were not verified, but received Shs 2.74bln and Shs 0.50bln, respectively, from government.

“The Committee further established that under the directive of the Accounting Officer, some cooperatives like Masaaba Cooperative Union, Lango Cooperative Union and Teso Cooperative Union were verified on two different claims and paid before some were verified on their original claims,” the report says.

“The verification exercise created avenues for abuse and manipulation because individual cooperatives were the ones sourcing for witnesses to testify before the verification committee in support of their war loss claims,” the report that is yet to be presented to the House continues.

Part II coming soon

https://thecooperator.news/mps-query-committee-investigating-cooperatives-over-war-reparations/

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