Evelyn Anite, Minister of State for Investment
Government has revealed that the contract for Tibet-Hima, the Concessionaire for Kilembe was canceled after the Chinese investor demanded to carry out of Uganda 30,000 metric tons of gold, copper and cobalt as samples for testing to China.
Evelyn Anite, Minister of State for Investment, made the remarks while appearing before Parliament’s Committee of Natural Resources recently, where she had been summoned to explain the slow progress in the revival of Kilembe Mines in Kasese.
“The President said that these resources belong to Ugandans and the concessionaire Tibet-Hima said, if that is the case, I will not continue with you and that is in the report of the winding up commission. And we couldn’t allow to give them 30,000 metric tons of our natural resources, just to take as samples to China for testing. It couldn’t make sense, not to the President, not to me, not anyone in Government, and therefore we refused and that was the point of departure,” said Anite.
“This contractor demanded of Government, that just for sample, he needed 30,000 metric tons of copper, cobalt and gold. Just for sample. It was very wrong in the wisdom of the contractor to think that we could allow him take our God given natural resources to a magnitude of 30,000 metric tons and takes it as sample,” explained Anite.
Minister Anite also revealed that she doesn’t regret the decision she took to cancel the contract of Tibet-Hima and is ready to defend it should any consequences arise.
“We made a mistake and conceded as Government and the mistake was, that we contracted a wrong contractor. And I am happy that I came after and was given the responsibility, and terminated the contract. I am very proud, if I am supposed to be fired, because I fired Tibet-Hima, I am very happy about that. Because I did my job, I couldn’t accept to see a company that had no capacity being given responsibility to manage Government resources. And the resources is big, it comprises of copper, gold and cobalt. So for me, I am very proud of what I did, I don’t fear the consequences thereafter,” said Anite.
The Minister also asked the Committee to summon the former and current officials at the Ministry of Finance that oversaw negotiations for Tibet-Hima to answer questions on why the contract was awarded to a company with no capacity.
She explained, “The Ugandans who were the office bearers of that office and contracted that contractor, the bible tells us that we shall be judged one by one for the sins or rights that we have committed on earth, they are living, invite them in this Committee let them explain to you how they arrived at that, I wasn’t there. But you need these Ugandans to come and tell you how they arrived at this investor, what were the parameters they followed. They will come and tell you. For me I am here to answer why I terminated them and the reasons are here.”
Norah Bigirwa (Buliisa DWR) asked the Committee leadership to ensure that the people behind the award of the contract are summoned and account for their decisions.
“I want to confess that I am very disappointed, not with her (Anite) but with the technical team at the Ministry of Finance. We would like to know, who are those people in charge of carrying out the due diligence, yes, as you talk of loss on the side of Government, who caused the loss? Because if you hadn’t given a contract to this man (Tibet-Hima), how would he have come in force?” asked Bigirwa.
She wondered how a contract was awarded to a company without the requisite documents and where the money earned from the sale of scrap was takes noting, “How do you continue contracting a person who lacks the attendant documents, that are very critical in such huge contracts? Where were the Ministers, technical team, the legal professionals in this country, what really happened? we need to see all those people out of the offices and need them to pay.”
“Kilembe Mines Limited, they are supposed to be supervisors, I want to know, are there cameras? Because you did mention in your presentation that some of the scrap were being sold out by Tibet-Hima. Where were the supervisors? And we also want to know the revenue that was got from sale of scrap, how much money was it and where did it go?” added Bigirwa.
