Panic grips Finance, UIA after IGG raid

The three-line ministers of Finance and Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) top management on Friday visited the donor-funded Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP) at Namanve to take stock of progress of works amidst the ongoing graft probe that has left officials panicky.

Mr Matia Kasaija, the finance minister, led the delegation comprising his two juniors; State Minister for Planning and Economic Development Henry Musasizi, State Minister for Investment and Privatisation Evelyn Anite, and the UIA top leadership led by the board chairperson, Mr Morrison Rwakakamba, and Director General Robert Mukiza. 

The visit, three weeks after sleuths from the Inspectorate of Government (IG) raided the UIA offices on Baskerville Avenue in upscale Kololo as part of the ongoing three-part investigations into affairs of UIA, including alleged corruption in management of KIBP, insiders told Daily Monitor, followed days of panic and anxiety especially at UIA.

At Finance, this publication understands, the ministers hardly notified their charges of the inspection visit. 

Even before the whistleblowers took parallel complaints to IGG, insiders intimated that complaints of mismanagement of the KIBP project at Namanve in Wakiso District had been lodged at the ministry but ignored.

The ministry in 2018 borrowed €249m (about Shs1 trillion) from the UK Export Finance and Standard Chartered Bank of London to finance development of KIBP to facilitate industrialisation. 

The project includes tarmacking roads and bridges, a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) hub, and related amenities to ease investors setting up industries.

However, the project has been rocked by, among others, claims of officials extorting and frustrating investors, dubious parcelling of land and inflating costs of project development.

Officials admit that the project has been beset by delays—with works reported at 45 percent—but it is expected to be completed by September 2025.

Ms Anite, under whose docket supervision of UIA lies, told Monitor that the project remains on course and the Friday visit was just another routine site inspection by the ministry’s top leadership.
“I have personally gone there (at Namanve) several times for on-spot visits and site checks and I can assure you and the country that despite some challenges, work is progressing,” she said, adding: “When those issues were raised the first time, we tasked the board for accountability and all those reports are there. The issue of double allocation of land: that investor went to court and got a verdict, and still went ahead and raised the matter with the President at one of the Presidential Investors Round Table meetings.”

“What I know is that the appointing authority knows that I have done my part; an excellent job for that matter, of developing the Namanve park and others around the country. We have 25 business and industrial parks because of my efforts; I surely deserve a medal,” Ms Anite, who described claimants saying otherwise as “ingrates”, said by telephone.

She further indicated: “On the accusations heaped on UIA; when you are corrupt you are corrupt, and if you are clean, you are clean. So, let us wait for the findings of the IGG.”

Five days after the IGG raid on the UIA offices and confiscated several documents, the Director General, Mr Robert Mukiza, on January 22, convened back-to-back senior management and staff meetings to prepare his team for the possible outcome of the probe.  

During the staff meeting, insiders intimated, Mr Mukiza, who did not respond to our request for comment, assured staff that management was ably cooperating with the probe and pledged institutional support in case any staff is summoned by the ombudsman.

Nonetheless, insiders told of a climate of panic, fear, and anxiety hovering over the staff rooms pending outcomes of the investigations said to be focused on several managers in management and the board. 

This, as the relationship between the board leadership and top management—once upon a time bosom buddies—is said to be fraying over a host of issues this newspaper will document next.

The IGG probe, insiders further intimated, will also focus on officials in Ministry of Finance named in the whistle-blower complaints for, among others, alleged cover up. UIA is the statutory agency charged with initiating and supporting government’s investment initiatives and policies.