Leaders demand probe into dish sale

ARUA.

Leaders from West Nile are demanding a probe into the management of Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) following the sale of satellite dishes and a Medium Wave mast at Giligili as scrap.

The leaders said UBC was destroying the legacy left by late Ugandan president Idi Amin.
“It as an attempt to erase the developmental legacy of late Idi Amin. Instead of rehabilitating whatever he left, they are busy destroying everything including state owned enterprises, foreign mission houses he bought,” the MP for Maracha, Mr Lee Oguzu, said on Monday.

“We will also query why the residents were not put to notice when such a magnificent infrastructure with tourism potential was being dismantled,” he added.

The MP for Ayivu County, Mr Bernard Atiku, also a member of the ICT committee of Parliament, said: “People of West Nile used to associate themselves with this satellite, but destroying such a legacy should be probed. If they don’t dismantle the one of Mpooma in Mukono, then we shall think they had ulterior motive as they did not inform us.”

The former ambassador to Brussels, Mr Harold Acemah, said the sale was a ridiculous move by government.

“I don’t believe that these are scraps and where will the money go? A probe should be done into this. This is a lie because these dishes helped us a lot and could still be refurbished because these were the few powerful earth satellites in Africa,” Mr Acemah said.

However, speaking to Daily Monitor on Monday evening, the UBC technician at Ombaci Satellite Station, Mr Yoram Badang, said: “The dishes could have been refurbished but since UBC established a new downlink dish for digital television, I think the management found that it would be too expensive and had to sell off these ones whose accessories were looted during the 1979 war.”

The background
In February, UBC advertised for the sale of 100 tonnes of scrap metal at Bugolobi, Kabale, Arua, Lira, Gulu and Soroti stations. On June 30, the procurement officer at UBC, Mr Patrick Ameda, wrote a letter authorising the dismantling of the decommissioned masts at Ombaci and Giligili. “Note that loading, transportation and weighing (of the scraps) shall be under supervision as per managing directors letter dated June 8,” the letter reads in part.

According to a letter, a copy of which Daily Monitor has obtained, indicates that the dishes were sold to M/S Scrap Uganda Limited. The bidding of the scrap metals was at non-refundable fee of Shs 200,000.