Members of Parliament sitting on Parliament Committee of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have recommended that Shs11bn meant to compensate businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba to be re-channeled towards revamping the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC).
This is after Keith Muhakanizi, Secretary to the Treasury revealed that Shs11bn had been provided for in the Ministry of ICT budget to cater for domestic arrears; mainly to pay off Bassajjabalaba debt.
The Shs11bn compensation to Basajjabalaba was a result of the contentious 23.1acres of land located in Bugolobi that UBC leased to Habba Group owned by Bassajabalaba, but court cancelled out the transaction and ordered the national broadcaster to refund Shs11bn that Habba had paid.
The Committee meeting which took place at Parliament on Tuesday brought together top officials from the ICT Ministry and UBC.
ICT State Minister, Aidah Nantaba ICT Permanent Secretary, Vincent Bagiire and UBC top bosses; Simon Kaheru and Winston Agaba attended the meeting that was chaired by ICT Committee Chairperson Annet Nyakecho.
This matter came to light after the Committee discovered that despite the fact that Government had earmarked Shs20Bn towards the revamping of UBC, no single penny had been allocated to the item in the 2018/2019 national budget.
However, MPs objected the move arguing that in the 2017/2018 budget, Parliament approved Shs20bn meant to revamp UBC, but only Shs6bn was disbursed by the Ministry of Finance, with the balance pending allocations in the subsequent financial year.
Nantaba protested the move of channeling UBC’s land to the ICT Ministry wondering why Muhakanizi didn’t channel the money meant for debt payment through the Attorney General’s Office, noting that this was not an excuse not to provide money for UBC.
Muhakanizi however informed members that it is upon the committee to recommend for either a reallocation of the said funds to UBC, noting that before he could clear the compensation of Basajjabalaba, he was reminded of the Supreme Court ruling of 2014 which recommended that Basajjabalaba should not be compensated.
“I have thus written to the Attorney General seeking for an interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling before any compensation can be made but in the meantime, the committee can choose to reallocate the money,” Muhakanizi said.
After a heated debate, ICT Committee Chairperson Nyakecho ordered to have the Shs11bn in the ICT budget reallocated to UBC to help revamp the national broadcaster.
“We have done our work and have reallocated the money, we have told the PSST to look for money elsewhere in case they have to compensate Bassajabalaba,” she said.
Background
It should be noted that during the investigation into the matter in 2016 by the Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE), it was revealed that the land title under contention had its ownership shifted to three hands within a space of one hour.
After the land title was given to Habba Group, the company sold the leased land to Deo & Sons who later sold off land to MP Margaret Muhanga.
Although the transaction documents recorded 23acres, the asset register at UBC cited 20acres sold yet Paul Kihika former Executive Director UBC told MPs at the time that the land sold was 18acres not 23acres.
Further investigations into the matter revealed that although UBC reported that the land was leased at Shs20Bn, Muhanga admitted that she sold goats and cows to raise Shs10.2Bn to purchase over 23acres of the land.
However, none of these funds are traced back to UBC’s accounts, with Kihika saying the funds were used to purchase the state of the Art equipment being used currently by UBC.
Lawyers representing UBC and those of Basajjabalaba entered into an out of court settlement and wanted the Supreme Court to sanction the deal where UBC would pay Basajjabalaba Shs36bn as compensation for the botched sale of Bugolobi land measuring close to 25 acres.
