Government to compel utl former bosses to refund billions

Kampala -The government will require Uganda Telecom Limited (utl’s) former managing director, Mr Mark Shoebridge and the former Chief Finance Officer, Mr James Wilde to refund $347, 256 (Shs1.2 billion) the company paid a private company in 2012 to share communication infrastructure.

This is one of the nine recommendations by the House Committee on utl, according to the State Minister for Planning, Mr David Bahati. He said the government is ready to adopt the report.

utl allegedly paid Band Width and Cloud Services Limited (BCS) Shs1.2 billion for sharing infrastructure along Kampala–Masaka– Mbarara–Gatuna infrastructure without any basis.

The payment would allow BCS to put transmission equipment on utl’s infrastructure.

utl and BCS, were to also collaborate and coordinate fibre cable maintenance on utl’s infrastructure between Kampala and Gatuna.

The committee said, in the course of gathering information for its report, there was an allegation that utl’s management was using BCS to obtain money from utl “for selfish ends”.

utl’s managers have in the past refuted the charge.

The government will also hold members of the utl board of directors liable for flouting public assets disposal regulations.

The members of the utl board are Stephen Kaboyo, Moses Mwase, Alin Bin Amir, Wafik Al Shater, Joanna Roche, Khalid Tarapolsi, Steward Andrew Simpson and Godfrey Kisseka, the then managing director be held liable for flouting asset disposal procedures.

Mr Shoebridge and Ayub Mulumba, utl’s internal auditor, will be sanctioned for exposing utl to financial stress when they committed utl to irregularly rent a house for the managing director.

Mr Bahati said: “We take these recommendations seriously and we will do as much as we can to implement the recommendations as much as it is practical. In the meantime, the process of receivership of utl is going on well and as soon as the process of receivership is completed.”

He said the government would take a strategic decision on whether the government runs the company they look for a strategic partner to run utl.

“What is important to note, is that for strategic reasons, and for security reasons, the assets of utl, the opportunities that utl has in terms of infrastructure across the country; the government will make sure it uses the infrastructure to make business,” he said. “We have learnt our lessons, and they are bitter lessons, to find a company that has no books of accounts is a lesson we should not allow any company to repeat.”