The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Opposition legislators have criticized the leadership of parliament for postponing plenary sittings pending a debate on a proposed motion challenging a vote on the government’s decision to purchase shares in Roko Construction Limited.
Parliament voted on the purchase of preference shares worth Shillings 202 billion in Roko Construction Limited on Thursday last week. However, the Opposition contested the decision taken during a sitting chaired by Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa. They described the vote as irregular noting that the presiding officer had not followed the rules of procedure before posing a question on the government proposal.
Led by the Leader of Opposition Mathias Mpuuga, the Opposition MPs resolved on Friday to issue notice to Speaker of Parliament Anita Among seeking to challenge the decision. In the motion, Mpuuga said that the decision by Tayebwa to put a vote on the government proposal contravened the rules of procedure and demanded among others, a report from the Minister of Finance as directed earlier by the Speaker, detailing action taken and measures put in place before deciding on whether to give a loan or grant to Roko.
The Opposition also demanded that the House votes on both the majority and minority finance committee reports on the proposal and that the question be properly put on whether the House should approve or disapprove the proposal by the government.
Mpuuga sought to table the motion in the house on Tuesday July 26th, 2022. However, on Monday evening, the Clerk to Parliament Adolf Mwesige called off plenary for this week in a notice to legislators.
“You will recall that at the 11th sitting of Parliament held on Thursday 21st July 2022, the Right Honorable Speaker adjourned the House to Tuesday 26th July at 2:00 pm. This is to inform you that the plenary sitting for tomorrow 26th July 2022 has been called off. Plenary Sittings will resume on Tuesday, 2nd August,” reads the notice.
The notice came shortly after the release of the Order Paper for Tuesday’s sitting, which was silent on the proposed opposition motion. Addressing journalists at Parliament on Tuesday afternoon, the Chief Opposition Whip John Baptist Nambeshe, said that the decision by the administration of parliament to suspend sittings is intended to buy time and allow the immediate extraction of the Roko resolution before the opposition tables their concerns. He condemned the delayed hearing of the motion, saying that the matter of Roko is of public importance and needs to be resolved soon.
Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, the Shadow Minister for Finance, said that no amount of delay will work against their motion. He emphasized that the Shadow Cabinet discussed the issue and questioned why both presiding officers of Parliament would stay away and approve the postponement of sittings.
Kivumbi revealed that the Leader of Opposition was to officially write to the Clerk to Parliament and Minister of Finance regarding the issue. He also emphasized that if this political process fails to yield fruits, the opposition team of lawyers led by Mawokota South MP, Yusufu Nsibambi was ready to pursue the matter in courts of law.
Kivumbi also says that they are ready to clash with the Speaker of Parliament to ensure that the parliament business is done using the proper procedure.
In response to queries raised by Opposition MPs, Chris Obore, the Director of Communication and Public Affairs, said that the Speaker of Parliament had other engagements like the Parliamentary Commission meeting hence the postponement of sittings.
“Calling the House is the responsibility of the Speaker and calling off a meeting is also a responsibility of the presiding officer. This is not new, for plenary to be rescheduled. This is normal, perhaps the Speaker has got other engagements,” said Obore.
Asked why the deputy speaker couldn’t chair the sitting, Obore said that having two presiding officers doesn’t mean that they both don’t have busy schedules.
Before the vote on the proposed government purchase of preference shares in Roko was made, Deputy Speaker Tayebwa had told MPs that Roko would cease operations if the government proposal for the purchase of 150,000 preference shares had not been approved.
As they objected to the procedures, Tayebwa announced that the Ayes had taken the day, thus approving the purchase of preference shares in Roko Construction Limited. The same approval had been delayed on Wednesday awaiting a report on actions and measures taken by the Finance Minister from concerns raised earlier by the Finance Committee, a minority report, and MPs.
In his report to Parliament, the Finance Committee Chairperson Kefa Kiwanuka recommended that Roko should be expeditiously audited by the Auditor General, as a condition of signing the Share Subscription Agreement to particularly look at and certify the material assets, debtors, creditors, governance, and management.
He also highlighted inadequate and insufficient due diligence by the government noting that the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC), which was requested in November 2019 to initiate the process of acquiring equity in Roko through the necessary valuation of the company was not allocated funds to do so.
Shillings 800 million was needed for the job. Butambala County MP, Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi recommended that approval of the share purchase is halted until due diligence is undertaken by independent, competent, and professional accounting firms.
Kivumbi also noted in a minority report, that due to failure to undertake due diligence, the same Roko Construction Limited together with FINASI had in the recent past entered into an agreement with the government to construct a specialized hospital in Lubowa, a project which never took off.
The minority report further recommends that government should acquire 51 percent of the ordinary shares of Roko Construction Limited as a condition for the acquisition of preference shares. The proposal for the purchase of Roko shares was first tabled before parliament two weeks ago when the Minister of State for Finance, Henry Musasizi indicated that Roko is facing severe liquidity challenges that have constrained its ability to execute contracted projects and adversely affected payments to its suppliers.
Roko currently has projects with signed contracts worth 1.064 trillion Shillings of which 696.6 billion Shillings are government projects. The company’s indebtedness, as of May 31, 2022, stood at 202.4 billion Shillings. It also has contingent liabilities from bank guarantees for ongoing projects worth 130.9 billion Shillings while its indebtedness to financial institutions totals 35.7 million Shillings and USD 20.7 billion and dues to local suppliers stand at 46.8 billion Shillings.
Roko’s liquidity situation arose primarily from delayed payments on major projects, failure to refinance expensive Shilling loans with cheaper external financing, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the construction industry, escalation of financing costs, and weak Corporate Governance, and inadequate management.
*****
URN
