The Secretary to Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi has issued fresh directives ordering all accounting officers in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to implement the presidential directive of ring fencing advertisements for only state-owned media Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) and Vision Group, and threatened to sanction anybody who refuses to abide by the new directive.
Ggoobi issued the directive in the Budget Execution circular for 2023/2024 writing, “All Govt advertising must be through UBC and new Vision as per the directive of the President. Any Accounting Officer who deviates from this will be sanctioned including dismissal.”
This followed a March 2023 letter by President Museveni directing the Prime Minister Robinnah Nabbanja to have all advertisements by Government given to UBC and New Vision, after receiving complaints from Winston Agaba, Managing Director UBC about the under funding to UBC coupled with denial of advertisements by government agencies, as well as the need to pay penalties for delayed contribution to NSSF and PAYE, and the need to replace the old equipment for the broadcaster.
In order to resolve UBC’s financial woes, President Museveni directed Nabanjja to ensure that starting with the budget of 2024/2025, Shs30Bn is allocated to UBC and have all government advertising ring fenced for UBC, and he ordered the dismissal of any accounting officers that deviates from the advertising directive.
However, Museveni’s directive was contested by both the operators of private media and Parliament, where Kin Kariisa, the proprietor of NBS Television and also chairman of National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) appealed to the Prime Minister to halt the implementation of the Presidential directive until a meeting is held between Government and private media owned media houses.
He said private media has played a tremendous role in promoting government programmes like the fight against Covid-19, Ebola, Emyooga, and the Parish Development Model.
During the consideration of the Competition Bill 2022 in Parliament, the Ministry of Trade fronted a proposal to exempt Government from provisions in the Competition Bill 2022 especially those arising from agreements out of international obligations and any person or enterprise performing a sovereign function on behalf of Government or on issues of national security.
However, Parliament’s Trade Committee rejected the proposal describing it as redundant, too broad and could be subject to abuse because there are already some government agencies involved in business and are making profits, so such a proposal would create unfair playground.
Instead, the Committee proposed to have Government given preferential treatment instead of the blanket exemption noting, “The law should apply to all economic activities within Uganda if it is for economic gain. The legislation should apply to all persons including the government, state corporations and local authorities in so far as they engage in trade. The exemption if any should be a case-by-case basis and not by statutory instrument.”
Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West) also rejected Government’s proposal describing it as dangerous warning that the moment Government is allowed to do business while competing with the private sector, Government will be the same ones not to pay taxes but will want to compete with private sector that will be paying taxes.
Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa asked Government to ensure that it follows all the provisions in the Competition Bill 2022 so as not to outplay the other players in business, citing the presidential directive on UBC advertising remarking, “When we finish this law, when you are doing business with government, is our biggest concern. A very good example is the President’s recent directive on advertisement for UBC saying that all adverts should go to UBC. If we have this law, we should be respecting it.”
Report Exposes Rot in UBC
Although Government has embarked on revamping UBC, the December 2022 report of the Auditor General detailed the rot the Corporation is grappling which shows the hard work that will go towards revival of UBC in order to make it profitable, having made losses worth Shs9.345Bn in 2021/2022 a decline from Shs19.320 made in 2020/2021.
Management informed auditors that the UBC Act 2005 vested the Corporation with all the Assets and liabilities of the Former UTV and Radio Uganda and as a result, UBC inherited a number of assets and infrastructure that are obsolete hence the high cost of the operation and maintenance.
The UBC Management also informed the Auditor General that they were engaging the Government for funding to enable the Corporation replace the obsolete infrastructures and equipment, while at the same time, the UBC Act is also being reviewed to streamline the source of funding for the Corporation, and a review of the UBC Strategic Plan is also being undertaken to ensure that the Corporation generates revenue for its sustainable growth.
The auditors also revealed that the Corporations Trade and other Payables increased to Shs84Bn from Shs75.119Bn and a further analysis revealed that some payables had remained outstanding for more than eight years old without any movements, a trend the auditors warned that it exposes the Corporation to a risk of costly litigation as well as penalties and fines from statutory bodies.
The Corporation was also found to be grappling with contingent liabilities worth Shs6.252Bn and these were outstanding as of 30thJune 2022 an increase from Shs1.827Bn as at 30th June 2021.
The report also revealed that although the Corporation has an approved staff establishment for 353 positions, 99 (28%) positions remained vacant due to inadequate wage something auditors say undermines service delivery.
Despite being thrown in the public spotlight over the corruption in management of its land in 2016, the situation seems to not have improved with the audit report indicating that UBC does not have Land titles for 36 pieces of land it currently owns.
Additionally, the Corporation owns 80 acres of land as per Vesting Order at Bobi-Gulu and the land is not being utilized and hosts equipment that is not on air, and auditors warned that the lack of Land titles may result in encroachment, disputes and even loss of public land.
The Corporation has land titles for 19 pieces of land which were leased out, however there were no lease agreements for 10 of these pieces of land. In addition, out of 19 pieces of land leased out, 6 pieces had expired leases, thus likelihood of exposing such land to a risk of loss.
