UIA CASH AWARD SCANDAL: Investment Authority Boss Finally Coughs Over Shs500m After ‘Pressure from Above’

To her credit, junior finance minister for investment Evelyn Anite has compelled Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) Director General Robert Mukiza to cough Shs545m in cash awards to UIA staff and members of the management team for the Kampala Industrial Park Development (KIPD) project.

In 2018, Uganda borrowed €249m (about Shs1tn) from UK Export Finance and the Standard Chartered Bank of London to finance the KIPD which, among others, was meant to make it easy for investors to carry out their industrialization initiatives. The money was supposed to help tarmac roads in the park and set up a Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) hub.

But some UIA staff, led by Mukiza, and PMT members paid themselves over Shs500m in total for what they termed “additional responsibilities” in the supervision of the project in August 2022.

On July 23, 2023, KIPD Project Manager Alex Nuwagira got Shs92m, DG Mukiza Shs82m, his deputy Paul Kyalimpa Shs58m, KIPD project engineer Felix Tumukunde Bainamaryo Shs55m, project architect Emmanuel Muhumuza Shs49m, UIA contracts manager Patience Kabije Shs43m, UIA transactional and contractual risk manager John Bwambale Shs43m, KIPD project quantitative surveyor Shs36m, and KIPD project accountant Dominic Mugesera Shs30m.

UIA contracts and claims assistant Amina Nassaka got Shs17m, UIA records manager Suzanne Akware Okissa got Shs17m, UIA documentalist Joanitah Kambedha got Shs8m, UIA driver Muzamil Mwanga got Shs4m and so did his colleague Augustine Katale.

On June 14, DG Mukiza wrote to the authorized representative of Lagan-Dott Namanve Limited based in Naguru requesting for the contractor account details for the refund of honoraria paid to the project management team [PMT] and UIA staff.

Mukiza was acting on two directives as made clear in two letters from his boss: the one from Minister Anite dated June 12 “directing the refund of the honoraria paid to the PMT and a section of UIA staff,” and another dated June 13 from UIA board of directors chairman Morrison Rwakakamba.

“This is to request you to provide me with bank account details to enable me implement the Minister’s directive,” Mukiza told the authorized representative of Lagan-Dott Namanve Limited.

Anite’s letter was particularly rebuking, with the minister saying she found the honoraria “despicable, uncouth, barbaric and uncultured that people who have been tasked with the responsibility of delivering such a project within 5 years not only have they underperformed but also they are busy chest thumping and dishing to themselves huge sums of the project loan.”

The minister further accused the UIA staff and project management team members of “mischarge, abuse and corruption at the expense of taxpayers of Uganda” and as being contrary with President Yoweri Museveni’s vision of “industrializing Uganda for job creation, wealth creation and social economic transformation.”

Anite issued the directive for the refund of the money after a meeting with Matia Kasaija, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and the UIA Board of Directors. Failure to refund the money within 24 hours from June 12 “will attract dire consequences,” warned Anite.

Minister Anite has urged IGG Beti Kamya to investigate the matter further.