The Minister of State for Investment and Privatization, Evelyn Anite has said she will not be cowed by threats of legal action from Investment Authority (UIA) Deputy Director  General, Paul Kyalimpa.

“It is my unwavering position that I pledge to defend the taxpayers of Uganda against corruption, abuse of office and misuse of public funds, be it even in the courts of law in Uganda or anywhere in the world, to the last drop of my bloo,” said Anite in a letter to Kyalimpa’s lawyers, adding, “So, bring it on.”

On June 26, Kyalimpa threatened to drag Anite to court for reportedly making ‘defamatory statements’ about the Shs 545 million honoraria which top bosses at UIA awarded to themselves.

The payments were drawn from an Shs. 871 billion loan (Euro 219,482,727) that the Ugandan government secured from UK Export Finance (UKEF) in 2019.

The loan was intended to finance the design and construction of transport infrastructure in Namanve Industrial Park.

Anite ordered that UIA staff and project management team members who received the honoraria on 23rd July 2023 from the project funds (loan), refund all the money within 24 hours.

“Failure to do so within the stipulated time frame, will attract dire consequences,” said Anite, adding that the payments were acts of corruption.

Through his lawyers, Alaka and Company Advocates, Kyalimpa has threatened to sue Anite, accusing her of defamation.

“On the 14th day of June, 2024 using your X handle @HonAniteEvelyn, published a false and defamatory statement in which you wrote that “this corruption must stop. Thank you UIA chairman @Rwakakamba & Board members for refusing to grant permission to @ugandainvest staff to pay themselves UGX 500m Honoraria out of loan meant for Namanve infrastructure. Ensure the money they took is refunded,” reads Alaka’s letter to Anite.

The letter further reads: “You attached a list of the said staff members including that of our client and went ahead and tagged @newvisionwire the official X handle of The New Vision @Mukiza_robert the Director General Uganda Investment Authority and @DailyMonitor the official X handle of Daily Monitor all circulating on World Wide Web (www). (See copies of the documents you attached to the publication enclosed herein). Your publications were false, made with malice, Malafide and defamatory and were meant and understood by all the right thinking members of society to mean that our client is a person without morals, without professional ethics, abuses office Untrustworthy and corrupt and therefore unfit to be the Deputy Director General of Uganda investment authority and he should be shunned.”

“You Published the said words knowing they were false having calculated that the benefit to them would be in terms of political capital while lowering and injuring our client an ardent Christian, Deputy Director General-UIA, Political Leader, and a family man. TAKE NOTICE that all the above defamatory statements were published without lawful justification and were/are defamatory in nature in as far as they are.”

In response, Anite told Alaka to ask his client Kyalimpa to refund the money.

“The purpose of this letter is to categorically state that the illegal actions of your client is a preserve of the wrath of our national laws,” said Anite.

“Your client and others should therefore prepare to fully refund Ugandan taxpayers money that were deposited in their personal accounts,” she added. 

The development marks a significant escalation of the conflict between Anite and the UIA administrators, whom she supervises, over the honoraria saga.

During a recent meeting held at State House Entebbe, President Museveni sought to reconcile Anite and UIA’s team led by Mukiza.  

Background

It all started with the project management team of the construction works at Namanve industrial park – the consortium of Roughton International Ltd., Turner and Townsend International Ltd., Joadah Consult Ltd., and Basic Group Ltd. failing to adequately supervise the project, therefore delaying in the clearance of studies and designs that were critical to commencement of the construction phase in May 2021.

UIA also cited a delay in providing instructions critical for project implementation and subsequently, due to these failures, it terminated their contract on 29th August 2022 and replaced them with its (UIA) in-house team to supervise the project. 

The contractor, Lagan Dott then wrote to Finance Minister Matia Kasaija and Anite, highlighting the disbursement of Shs 545,497,331 from the Namanve Industrial Park Project Loan, which included payments of Shs 280,421,368 and Shs 265,075,963 to selected UIA staff and the project management team, respectively.

The UIA Director General, Robert Mukiza was paid 82 million shillings, Deputy Director General Dr Paul Kyalimpa – 58 million, Contracts and Claims Patience Kabije – 43 million, Transactions and Contractual Risk Management John Bwambale Kyamakya – 43 million, Contracts and Claims Assistant Amina Nassaka – 17 million, Records Management Suzanne Akware Okissa – 17 million, Documentalist Joanitah Kambedha – 8 million, and drivers Muzamil Mwanga and Augustine Katale were paid 4 million shillings each.

Furthermore, Project Manager Alex Nuwagira was paid 92 million shillings, Project Engineer Felix Tumukunde Beinamaryo – 55 million, Project Architect Emmanuel Muhumuza – 49 million, Project city surveyor William Sande – 36 million, and project accountant Dominic Mugesera – 30 million shillings.

Anite reacted angrily to reports that UIA officials received the honoraria, saying, she found it “despicable, uncouth, barbaric and uncultured that people who have been tasked with the responsibility of delivering such a project within 5 years not only have they underperformed but also they are busy chest thumping and dishing to themselves huge sums of the project loan.”

She added: “All these tantamount to mischarge, abuse and corruption at the expense of taxpayers of Uganda.”