Committee dismisses minister Musasizi over loans performance

Parliament's committee on national economy Thursday afternoon dismissed finance state minister Henry Musasizi for presenting "inconsistent" documents.

The minister was accompanied by representatives of agencies under his supervision, including Uganda Development Bank (UDB) and Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU).

They had been scheduled to present performance reports on loans they have received over time.

Following a one-hour adjournment, committee vice chairperson Robert Migadde said the documents presented by the two entities were "shoddy" and short on detail.

He then directed the Musasizi and his team to return before the committee on Tuesday.

“UDB did not have anything to present," said Buvuma Islands MP Migadde.

"And we did agree that they prepare the performance of loans both physical and financial. And physical means including the list of beneficiaries.

"PSFU, you are aware we passed on a number of loans to you. I have been a member of this committee for some time. One of them was for Jinja Integrated Training Institute. We had been promised that by now, we would be having a first-class hotel in Jinja…Up to today, there is no hotel,” pressed Migadde.

Part of the issues the committee legislators had wanted to shine a torch into include a sh740b loan Uganda secured in 2015 from Exim Bank for Entebbe International Airport expansion and a sh47b loan meant for the construction of Bukasa inland port.

Migadde and Jonathan Ebwalu (Soroti West MP) had earlier on expressed concern over calls by Musasizi to blur some details.

“We want to see beneficiaries as part of the presentation. When you come to borrow, there is what we call classified loans and we know how to treat them. Normally, they have been approved and they have not gone to the media. But as far as we are concerned, UDB has not acquired any classified loan,” reasoned Migadde.

Ebwalu weighed in.

"“I don’t think the minister is proceeding right for him to say that there is confidential information you don’t want to share here because when we borrow, these loans we are going to pay as Ugandans.

"What is this information you want to hide?" he asked.

"We should know how much money we gave you as Parliament, how much money you have committed, what you done with this money because at the end of the day, the people of Uganda are going to pay this money in taxes,” said Ebwalu.

“When we passed here a budget support loan, I think it was sh1.3 trillion, they say that Minister Musasizi appeared before the committee and even they told him to tell us the schedule of the repayment of the loan of the loan. Again you told us that you cannot tell us in camera."

The Loans

According to Denis Oceng, the director of finance and business operations at UDB, the entity is currently a beneficiary of 12 loans secured from seven financial institutions.

“The total that we have secured is $163.5m (sh607b) and we have been able to disburse 75% of all the funding that we have received," said Oceng.

"The paper before you, however, is limited to the funding that we received from the African Development Bank (AfDB)."

Documents presented to the parliamentary committee show that the AfDB extended two lines of credit amounting to sh74b to UDB between 2019 and 2020.

UDB, the borrower, was to utilize the proceeds of these lines to extend credit to priority areas such as agriculture, manufacturing, human capital development, education, health and tourism.