The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Records from the Central bank show that commercial banks in Uganda lent out some Shs 21.9 trillion. Of this, Shs 1.8 trillion has been declared to be Non-Performing Assets on the books of several banks. Some banks have been hit more than others.
As The Independent reported, some of the investors such as Simba Group, Ham, Alam Group, Steel and Tube, which top the list of those seeking a bail out, also contributed cash towards Museveni’s campaigns. The proposal to bail out these companies has attracted a lot of debate.
Saleh, Museveni determined
Critics argue that the taxpayer should not bear the brunt of the losses of the rich when the rich enjoy their profits privately.
Proponents, however, say that the government needs to bail out these companies because they are a source of hundreds of thousands of jobs and have been a source of government revenues in form of taxes. Others say the risk of the contagion across the economy as a result of the collapse of these companies might be too high.
Because criticism seems loudest, government officials have come out to deny that the government is considering bailing out any one.
However, The Independent understands that many continue to lobby the President, who, it appears is determined to dip into the public purse and bail out the companies. He pledged to support these companies in his State of the Nation address.
There is also the Gen. Saleh factor. Opponents of the bailout fear that the government might roll-over protests from the ministry of finance and Central bank technocrats and handout cash to the business community because of Gen. Saleh’s new and growing role in directly running the show in Museveni’s government.
According to this view, the business bail out project is just one in many big projects that Gen. Saleh has handled for Museveni recently. Insiders say, unlike the past when he played a peripheral albeit strategic role in certain projects, Saleh is now deeply involved in running government.
Some speak of the pre-election strategic meetings that Saleh held at Serene Suites with NRM officials and strategists. After the elections, politicians of all kinds continue to flock the hotel to meet Saleh.
And it appears Saleh will keep playing his new role for a while. According to the hotel’s website, the suite he occupies is fully booked until January 2017. If Saleh spends two years here, his bill will be about $700,000 (Shs 2.3 billion).
Initially, officials thought Saleh was using this hotel as a base to canvass support for President Museveni ahead of the February election. Indeed, he held meetings with different groups on campaign strategy. But it is as if real work for him started after the election.
Apart from the bailout, Gen. Saleh has been handling other critical government business that President Museveni previously handled himself.
A source close to the Museveni family told The Independent: “They (the Museveni’s) felt that because they are within the system, they were unable to identify some of their failures and wanted someone who can operate from outside, identify problems and fix them or suggest recommendations.”
Sources say Saleh also drafted the recent Cabinet list from his suite at this hotel. They say he held various consultations.
Many officials would visit him at Serene Suites to lobby for cabinet jobs. The appointment of William Byaruhanga as the Attorney General is cited by many as the topmost indicator that Saleh worked on the cabinet list. Byaruhanga has been Saleh’s legal advisor for a long time now.
One legislator who did not make the list despite intense lobbying, told The Independent that when he tried to ask why he had not made it, `Saleh’s people’ informed him that when President Museveni went to Germany to attend the German-Africa Business Day, he went with the list, and changed parts of it. That is probably how his name dropped off the list.
Since the cabinet was announced, Saleh has been summoning and holding meetings with different government officials. Finance Minister Matia Kasaijja and new Security Minister Henry Tumukunde are some of the ministers he has met at Serene Suites. Saleh and Tumukunde are very close and sources close to the two have confirmed that it is Saleh who got Tumukunde to become the Museveni campaign’s pointsman.
Is Salim Saleh playing the “false brother?” General Salim Saleh has always played the mysterious- the enigmatic part of President Museveni’s leadership. He is, his clandestine mover albeit not so smooth. He has been involved in a number of scandals that paint the President in bad light. He was involved in the junk helicopter scandal, in the plundering scandal of the DRC, he has Uganda’s record of being the first and so far the last state Finance Minister in charge of micro-finance. He’s also a senior six graduate in the Swahili language. But today, I am using the term “false brother” as levity to signify a much deeper problem. The pending government bailout of the so called private rich companies has caused a battle of wagging tongues. The latest in the fray being Ofwono Opondo the
Director at the Uganda Media Centre. Hosted on the Capital Gang (a radio talk
programme), Opondo revealed that the Kwagalana group (a loose grouping of the rich) under the auspices of Hon. Amelia Kyabadde (Minister of Trade) met with the President to convince him to direct government buy (nationalise) their shopping arcades. This revelation was after Ramathan Ngobi and Ibrahim Ssemujju suggested that Uganda was facing an economic crisis upon which, Abdul Kantuntu had proposed a dialogue of the key stake holders. I find it an intolerable irony that the “poor” are to bailout the “rich.” If the “Ugandan rich” have become poor, how can they be bailed out by the remaining “not rich Ugandans?” The explanation is, that government is going to take money from the consolidated fund and give it out to individuals and private businesses to advance their personal selfish interests. If
government follows through the bailout plan, it will be confiscating the surplus of the poor to feed the industries and cities of the rich. This calls for an audited plan by the office of the Auditor General. Let there be a sanctioned plan by Parliament on how government can rescue private enterprises. Before the Kwagalana group comes forward with their paunches asking for a financial bailout, let them present their records of accounts to the authorities. My quarrel is not against the principle of government bailing out private companies, it is an ethical argument that the method being applied does not justify it. In 1859, Karl Marx tried to
define what was and wasn’t socialism. In a telling phrase he questioned, ‘Does
a movement or society claiming to be socialist in fact institutionalise the power of the people over the means of production? Or does it rationalise the power of the dominant class over the people?’ In Uganda do we run a free economy or a state economy? The pseudosocialisms is what Marx termed as “false brothers.”
This whole thing has been very interesting for me. The rich-“poor” have made their noise already. We are blaming them, yet they have a problem that has been created over 30 years. Now, the wonderful working/middle class small traders are comfortable. They think its just fine. Maybe they do not have debts, I hope the salary loans from banks, the multiple debts from money lenders, debts from micro finances, debts from markets for just buying food are all being managed well. Should I list it all, mortgage loans, car loans, personal loans, moneylender loans, etc all by one person!!!! Search your entire wardrobe guys and then see whether we are heading to a proper direction. Is this an individual problem now or it had better become of Very serious Public concern. I am talking about the rest apart from the rich who have made a move!!!! You here of a serious debt crisis and your are probably part of it (running to borrow from money lenders to buy just food!!!) and you are remaining silent. I rest my case.