Barigye/Mujabi
That is where losing an organized opposition in Uganda is so detrimental for a
point needs to be made categorically clear that lending money to this
government is lending it to Museveni the man. As soon as he gets out of power
the next government is never going to pay it back. When you fail to make that
abundantly clear you are going to pay it all up with all interests he has
signed for and all conditions he has put in. Trust me Museveni at this point
knows clearly that he is not going to be around when this money is needed, but
he knows that you will be around and your children so will. If a government is
in power for thirty years why start to borrow money for a train system today
unless you’re using the train to get the funds for your selves.
And trust me he is not going to deliver the train either. This is a double
whammy for Museveni and family.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika
machafuko"
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Frank Mujabi
Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2014 7:28 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: ug at
Subject: Re: {UAH} CHINESE FIRM GOES TO COURT OVER UGANDA'S RAILWAY PROJECT
Allan
I think the problem is the lack of money on M7's part .
I think he originally thought that he could afford to pay for the railway, and
was forced to go with the 'soft loans' proposed by Rosa Whittaker.
But I love the Iganda corruption which brought in a third player who also
claimed to offer the soft loans.
What is strange is that the first company awarded the contract is Chinese govt
owned.
Could they not offer the govt soft loans to Uganda?
Sent from my iPhone
On 10 Aug 2014, at 01:24, Allan <[email protected]> wrote:
With Amama on the way to being toothless, these Chinese can as well forget
everything including $$$$$$$.
Sent from my LG G2 android smartphone device
On Aug 9, 2014 5:41 PM, "Herrn Edward Mulindwa" <[email protected]> wrote:
Chinese firm goes to court over Uganda’s railway project
<image001.jpg>
President Museveni flags off a train in Gulu, Uganda. The government is accused
of awarding the tender to a Chinese firm after signing MoUs with another. FILE
PHOTO
By JULIUS BARIGABA The EastAfrican
Posted Saturday, August 9 2014 at 18:06
IN SUMMARY
At the heart of the dispute are several Uganda government departments and two
Chinese companies -CCECC and CHEC.
American lobbyists are behind CHEC and pushing Uganda government executives in
the fight for $8 billion worth of contracts to build, upgrade and expand
Uganda’s railway network to standard gauge.
SGR is one of the components of the Northern Corridor infrastructure projects
that the East African Community partner states started planning as early as
2004, but in June 2013, the presidents of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda agreed to
fast track it, with a March 2018 deadline.
Uganda’s plans for a standard gauge railway (SGR) are in disarray as the
government must now choose between playing fair and surrendering to lobbyists’
interests.
At the heart of the dispute are several Uganda government departments and two
Chinese companies — state-owned China Civil Engineering Construction
Corporation (CCECC) and China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC).
But The EastAfrican has learnt that American lobbyists are behind CHEC and
pushing Uganda government executives in the fight for $8 billion worth of
contracts to build, upgrade and expand Uganda’s railway network to standard
gauge.
The SGR is one of the components of the Northern Corridor infrastructure
projects that the East African Community partner states started planning as
early as 2004, but in June 2013, the presidents of Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda
agreed to fast track it, with a March 2018 deadline.
In 1998, CCECC interested Uganda’s then Ministry of Works, Housing and
Communication in a trolley bus transportation system in Kampala city, but the
ministry and President Yoweri Museveni instead interested the same company in
it the rehabilitation and development of Uganda’s railway infrastructure.
By 2004, the project was taking a regional outlook, and Museveni met CCECC
executives in Kampala and later in 2006, in Beijing, to discuss the issue.
In 2010, Museveni asked CCECC to work with the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces
to enable the army to develop capacity in rail construction. These engagements
crystallised into three memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the Chinese
company, the first of which was signed on December 22, 2011 for the
construction of a new port at Bukasa in Uganda.
The other two MoUs were signed on January 13, 2012, one for the rehabilitation
and upgrade of the existing railway line from Malaba to Kampala and the other
for the line from Tororo-Pakwach-Gulu and expansion to Nimule, then Juba in
South Sudan.
CCECC went ahead to conduct feasibility studies for the two rail routes, and
submitted them to the Ministry of Works and Transport in April 2013.
However, even as CCECC was doing the feasibility studies, a rival firm in CHEC
appeared on the scene in August 2012.
Documents obtained by The EastAfrican indicate that President Museveni issued a
presidential directive in September 2012 to his Minister of Works Abraham
Byandala to accommodate CHEC, which was fronted by former US assistant trade
representative for Africa Rosa Whitaker, in the railway and port projects,
citing the group’s goodwill in Beijing to source funds for construction of the
railway.
“Rosa Whitaker ... brought to us a Chinese group known as China Harbour
Engineering Company that wanted to help source Chinese government soft loans to
build the railways in Uganda as well as a port on Lake Victoria,” Museveni’s
letter reads.
The weight of the powerful Whitaker Group forced Museveni to revise the earlier
MoUs with CCECC.
On March 14, CCECC was invited to a meeting with the State Minister for Works
John Byabagambi to discuss the next steps towards the final deals, only to be
told that its contract to build the SGR for Tororo-Pakwach-Gulu and expansion
to Nimule would be handed to another company, which had signed a new MoU with
the government. Instead, CCECC would be given the contract to build the western
route of the railway from Kampala to Kasese, which was not part of the MoUs.
Besides this shabby treatment, the company claims that it had invested Ush50
billion ($19.3 million) on feasibility studies for the routes covered under its
MoUs with the Uganda government, fully sanctioned by the Attorney General,
Peter Nyombi, who also advised against termination of CCECC’s MoUs, according
to official documents obtained.
However, on April 8 this year, Mr Byabagambi terminated CCECC’s MoU for the
Tororo-Pakwach-Gulu line, saying that it was not binding. CCECC lawyers argue
that once the Chinese firm undertook to do feasibility studies, which the
government received as a sign of commitment to undertake the projects, Kampala
committed itself the argument that the MoUs were not binding was then invalid.
More significantly, the president becomes a key player now as Mr Byabagambi
says in a June 15 sworn affidavit that he terminated the agreements with CCECC
under a presidential directive.
“In further response thereto, I have not acted on this process unilaterally as
H.E the President of the Republic of Uganda and the summit members have been
giving direction as clearly shown in annexure B,” he says.
Although the said annexure — a July 2, 2013 letter by President Museveni to
Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi on railway infrastructure — does not direct Mr
Byabagambi to terminate CCECC’s MoUs, it raises further questions of corruption
in the projects and the multiplicity of agreements between the government and
Chinese firms for the same railway projects.
But the significant question President Museveni’s letter raises is that of
financing, and is loaded with undertones of frustration as to why Uganda’s SGR
remains on paper, while Kenya has already covered a lot of ground on projects
agreed on the same dates, with a similar completion deadline.
President Museveni’s letter was triggered by Transport Minister Stephen
Chebrot, who wrote to the president seeking a way out of the impasse.
“Before we go for a win-win solution suggested by Dr Chebrot, Hon Byandala
should answer the question: If some companies fulfilled their obligations under
the MoU and on time, why had the project not progressed by the time I came in
with the Engineering Brigade of the UPDF and, later on, with the CHEC people?
After that answer, then we shall see the way forward,” reads President
Museveni’s letter.
China’s ambassador to Uganda Zhao Yali also cited financing hurdles when The
EastAfrican sought comment last Thursday on the bickering Chinese companies
that were costing Uganda a lot of time, projects running behind schedule and
how this would be resolved.
“The financing for the projects is important; you have to know where you can
get the money. I am not ready to give comment right now because the Uganda
government is in consultation with the Chinese companies that are contracting
the railway project. But the financing is important,” he said.
In the meantime, as the blame game goes on within government departments,
namely the Ministry of Works, Attorney General’s Chambers, the Office of the
President, Uganda People’s Defence Forces, all pointing fingers at each other
for flouting fair play rules, lawyers are watching the developments, and
taxpayers will soon or later pick the bill for the litigation that will arise
out of this mess.
CCECC has already won round one after getting an injunction on July 14 against
the Attorney-General preventing him from terminating its MoU for the lucrative
Tororo-Pakwach-Gulu railway line, which will eventually link up with South
Sudan’s line from Juba.
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika
machafuko"
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