OPPOSITION MPs are drafting a petition to demand that the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Ssekandi, recalls MPs currently on a Christmas recess to debate the fuel crisis. Recently, the shadow minister of energy, Harry Kasigwa, the lead petitioner, featured on Vision Parliament, a talk show on 94.8 Vision Voice Radio together with NRM MP for Buliisa County, Steven Biraahwa and FDC MP Patrick Amuriat Oboi to discuss the fuel crisis.

Godfrey Ojore listened in and transcribed the high points of the discussion. Charles Odongtho was the moderator of the programme.

Odongtho: Honourable Kasigwa, as the shadow minister of energy, how better would you have advised the Government to solve the issue of fuel shortage in the country?

Kasigwa: We have a regulatory framework in the names of the Petroleum Supply Act of 2003 that manages the fuel industry. Under this legislation, we should look at the responsibilities of the ministry and the minister. I would point out two major functions the ministry and the minister is supposed to pursue. One is to promote the continuous, secure and adequate supply of petroleum products at a competitive cost to all consumers and to create a favourable condition to the availability of adequate imports, transport and storage distribution.

Another one is to approve the order for emergency petroleum supply. I doubt that the minister has ensured that the country should have adequate fuel supply. So my understanding right now is that it seems we have given the petroleum importers and fuel companies leeway to fleece the people.

Odongtho: But as a shadow minister you should interact with minister Daudi Migereko over this matter. Have you done that?

Kasigwa: We are waiting for Parliament to open and we make an official statement to prove that there are inadequacies in the system. It is like there is somebody taking advantage of the situation and this should be investigated.

The law commands the Government to ensure that you have strategic reserves, but today when you go to Jinja depots, you will find there is nothing. The law states that whoever holds a license should ensure that they have 10 days supplies incase of an emergency.

Odongtho: Parliament is supposed to reopen on February 3, but this is an emergency that needs an immediate solution.

Kasigwa: I am drafting a petition to the speaker of Parliament to see how we can proceed. This is a matter of urgency and national importance.

Odongtho: You earlier mentioned the law that mandates every supplier and dealer of petroleum products in the country to have stock for 10 days, incase of an emergency. What, in your view, is the failure in implementing this legal provision?

Kasigwa: Fuel is a necessity that drives the economy. World over, the fuel industry attracts a lot of speculation. So if you are not serious about handling speculation, then we fall into the hands of suppliers. For example, why has Shell maintained a steady price over this period?
Why is it that when we come to the end of the year, we have a fuel crisis?

This is a strategic matter. We are a landlocked country and if we are going to remain competitive, then our intelligence services would have told us that there is going to be a fuel crisis and we should have planned adequately to handle the situation. But what do we see? Our intelligence services are only engineering politics and persecuting the opposition instead of warning the nation on economic issues.

Odongtho: Honourable Biraahwa, do you have any question?

Biraahwa: I am happy in the way he has taken the debate largely as a national issue and not a partisan debate. I think one of the confirmations made by the shadow minister is that Uganda must accept that we had a steady growth for almost 18 to 20 years and that means that the micro- economic policies which have been introduced for recovery, rehabilitation and stabilisation have largely worked.

The challenge is: How do we manage this steady growth? Uganda is not supplying Uganda alone, but supplying DR Congo and Southern Sudan, I think I agree with him as far as that is concerned. As a country, the departments concerned should now be thinking in the direction of how to plan for this big growth and expansion.

Odongtho: Should there be a regulatory intervention by the Government. How do you want this done?

Amuriat: What is important to note is that at the moment, the transport system is bleeding. Fuel affects people from all walks of life. This is not the first time that we have had a fuel crisis in this country. It has happened several times. How I wish that the minister of energy had come to this show so that he explains to the public what is happening in his sector.
Odongtho: Are you saying that there is a sheer mismanagement that is going on and causing this fuel shortage and not just an economic play?

Amuriat: When you just look at one factor, the falling price of oil in the world there is a great contradiction to what is happening in the country today. Why is it that oil prices on the world market are falling while in Uganda it is rising? Look at Rwanda which is even more landlocked than Uganda have managed the crisis. They are able to sell oil at a reasonable price. This illustrates is that there is something wrong in our country.

Odongtho: Hon. Biraahwa, you have listened to Amuriat. What do you have to say about it?

Biraahwa: We have to be optimistic. When the fuel prices shot up from $60 to $145 the price in Uganda down stream did not increase threefold, equally when the price falls from $149 to $40. Why do you now expect the price to reduce automatically? You need to understand that when the price reduces upstream it will take some months because of the freight time and the different processes downstream.

Amuriat: We need to examine our own government and see whether it is taking the necessary steps.

Odongtho: What do you have to say about the pipeline issues?

Amuriat: This pipeline issue would have been the solution to our problem. We have talked about it in Parliament for many years. Unfortunately, the red tape is too much. My suspicion is that there is somebody directly benefiting from this crisis.

Biraahwa: We would like to see the ministry acting on administrative issues immediately. Let the fuel imports be given preferential treatment. They should not be made to line up at the borders, that would relieve us of the deficit. We must find more wagons to bring oil by rail. I agree with the President when he says we must work on alternative routes, these are the strategic issues which we need to handle if we are going to solve this oil problem.

Amuriat: I do not agree with the President when he says he is not going to intervene in this oil business. Something needs to be done like lowering taxes, the pipeline issue needs to be sorted, corrupt officials should be identified and isolated. The crisis is a failure, that is why we are telling the Government to wake up, become sensitive to the peasants’ plight and get things fixed or else be considered a naïve government.