Spit out coffee cash, say MPs

The Speaker of Parliament has ordered an inquest into how the government gave the green light to a Shs9.6 billion expenditure clothed in, among others, teaching Ugandans the ropes of drinking coffee.

Speaker Anita Among on Thursday took exception to the project sanctioned by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), and carried out under the auspices of Inspire Africa (U) Limited.

“The coffee consumption is a nugatory expenditure, and I want to thank the Committee for referring this issue to CID [Criminal Investigations Department],” she said during a plenary sitting, adding, “Can we have an independent investigation on this matter? Let us have this matter investigated on its own. We aren’t going to wait for the Treasury Memorandum. That nugatory expenditure, the person responsible for it should bear the liability and we need a serious investigation.”

Ms Among’s directive was seconded by Mr John Teira (Bugabula North), who reasoned that it is important to firmly draw a line in the sand.

“If we don’t take action against the specific officers who perpetrated this, very soon the Ministry of Health will come up with a budget on how to teach Ugandans how to use condoms,” he said, adding, “The Leader of Opposition in Parliament has been very categorical on how the Office of Prime Minister is run … this must be a wakeup call against the people who perpetrate this.”

Discoveries

Acting on findings from the Auditor General’s office, the House’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that Inspire Africa dispensed the Shs9.662 billion it received on four major activities. The pick of these was ring-fencing Shs3.83 billion for grounding youth in the basics of coffee production.

The lawmakers also discovered that Shs2.65 billion was ring-fenced for teaching youth the ropes of financial literacy and business governance. This was part of a move, Inspire Africa said, to build capacity among Ugandans.

Attempts at accountability by the entity showed that Shs1.9 billion was channeled towards opening coffee shops and other attendant infrastructure that prop coffee consumption activities. The Auditor General, however, discovered that a string of coffee shops in Tororo, Arua, Mbale and Lira never saw the light of day. Regardless, the project’s administration costs are said to have gobbled up Shs1.3 billion, PAC learnt.

As he presented the findings of his committee, Mr Medard Sseggona (Busiro East), the PAC chairperson, revealed that the activities undertaken at most outlets ran counter to promises enshrined in the contract the OPM green-lit.

For instance, a team of intelligence police officers that visited the Malaba outlet discovered that operations there only spanned a short while. To compound matters, the activities were carried out by non-youth. The proceeds that were realised from the business were also wired back to Inspire Africa’s Kampala bank account.

“The team of CID further established that unlike other places, Arua did not raise the 150 youth for training. Even the few who were trained deserted the training,” Mr Sseggona said.

MPs demand action

Mr David Kabanda (Kasambya County) described the deal as an “unnecessary expenditure,” while Mr Sanon Bwiire (Bulamogi County) reduced it to “total thuggery” that further stained Uganda’s image on the global scene.

“I am shocked, surprised and totally disturbed. Who really initiated this activity of teaching Ugandans to drink coffee? Actually, Uganda is internationally recognised as being one of the corrupt countries in the world,” Mr Bwire said, adding that teaching “Ugandans how to drink coffee … is total thuggery.”

Mr Naboth Namanya (Rubabo County) demanded that the OPM present to the House a copy of the syllabus cleared by the Education ministry upon which Inspire Africa did its benchmarking.

“Teaching and all activities surrounding imparting knowledge into people’s heads is a preserve of the Ministry of Education, and to teach, you must develop a syllabus,” he said, adding, “We must know whoever developed the concept of teaching how to drink coffee whether he had a consultation with the Ministry of Education that is charged with developing the syllabus.”

Dr Elisa Rutahigwa (Rukungiri Municipality), however, sprung to the rescue of Inspire Africa, reasoning that Ugandans needed to be lectured on the A-Z of coffee consumption.

“First of all, coffee has a substance called caffeine and caffeine is a psychotropic substance. It affects the heart, it affects the breathing, and it affects the blood vessels,” he said, adding, “I am only concerned on what would be the content of the training. But saying training isn’t necessary, you may think that just taking coffee is the way it is supposed to be taken, when actually there are steps to be taken in drinking coffee.”

Proactivity absent

Mr Mathias Mpuuga, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP), said the development should serve as a lesson to the House to scrutinise “social action programmes [that] are brought here for funding.”

The LoP added: “…how do you explain as Prime Minister that money leaves your vote, you aren’t sure how you are going to measure output? I want to look at the workplan for the coffee consumption thing.”

Mr Mpuuga said in no uncertain terms that the project the OPM entrusted to the care of Inspire Africa is “one of the [biggest] scandals of our time.” He urged the House to be more proactive in red-flagging such projects rather than “undertaking a postmortem.”

“The whole idea of promoting coffee is being handled at the tail end. Before promoting production, we are promoting consumption of what isn’t available,” the LoP said, adding, “I am a coffee farmer at a large scale and, as I speak, there isn’t enough coffee to supply the market … we should be supporting the communities to grow coffee. Those who want to consume coffee will find motivation to take the coffee, but at least there is a general motivation of selling to get money. That we must promote.”

OPM defends deal

Speaking in defence of the deal, Ms Rukia Nakadama, the third Deputy Prime Minister, reasoned that the contract was meant to popularise coffee in the country. She hastened to add that the title of the deal was wrong.

“It was for popularising coffee intake; not to teach people how to drink coffee. I think it was given the wrong heading. It should be popularising the intake of coffee,” she said, adding, “By the time the report comes out, we are supposed to be supervising, but we are going to come out with a Treasury Memorandum.”