Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi
The Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi, has asked Gov’t to reveal details of the agreement it signed with Dei Bio Pharma after the owners of the company revealed plans to repay the Shs723Bn it obtained from taxpayers, yet at the time of approval of the funds, Gov’t denied existence of such an agreement.
Ssenyonyi’s request followed a field visit he conducted at the Matugga-based company premises, where Mathias Magoola, proprietor of Dei Pharma, revealed that he would start production of vaccines in October 2024.
Many times the government makes commitments to return to this House and update us on numerous issues. On 30th April 2024, the Ministry of Finance brought us here a supplementary request of Shs1.1Trn. embedded therein was Shs578Bn for Dei Bio Pharma, a factory that is intending to manufacture vaccines and other medicines. Some of us opposed this supplementary request. The government was saying they would like to rescue this company, which is heavily indebted by buying shares. What is the worth of the company? And the Minister of Finance conceded that they hadn’t valued the company yet.
And then we asked, if you haven’t valued the company, is there some kind of agreement between the government and the company before you give them money? The same minister conceded and said not yet, but we are going to work on it afterwards. On our end, we said that is problematic; that is irregular because you can’t put the cart before the horse; it is like shooting first and aiming later. First work on the preliminaries; anyhow, even though we opposed it, it passed.
“The company said they are going to start producing vaccines at the start of next month, which is just next week; we are waiting to see what happens. The company, through their proprietor, Mathias Magoola, said that the government had valued this company and an agreement had been signed; they didn’t avail us of these agreements,” said Ssenyonyi.
“The government had told us that they would come back to us to approve because this is a company that has so far been given Shs723Bn. The same proprietor told us that in a few months, he is going to return this money because that was part of the clause included in the agreement signed with the government. I found that strange. Does that mean that the government is buying shares for a few months?” asked Ssenyonyi.
“We would like to know, how true is this kind of agreement? The government should tell this House. Dei Pharma says they are going to return the money. What kind of arrangement is that? I thought it would be procedurally right for them to return to this house because they came here begging for this money. I think the government needs to be smarter and better organized. Can we have a comprehensive policy on bailouts because, in a short while, the government is going to return here with another supplementary request to bail out another company?” added Ssenyonyi.
The Attorney General, Kiwanuka Kiryowa, confirmed the existence of an agreement signed between the government and Dei Pahrama and said that the government is okay with the company owners buying back the shares, noting, “Share are a property. The government would like to bail out someone, so if someone is ready to buy back the shares, that is what we thought was the correct thing to do. Yes, there is a clause in the agreement that while the government has shares, should Dei Pharma wish to buy back those shares, those shares will be valued on that date and then bought back.”
