Basajja paid for land before UBC decided to sell
CITY businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba reportedly paid for 18 acres of land belonging to the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) before the board decided to sell.
By VISION REPORTER
CITY businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba reportedly paid for 18 acres of land belonging to the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) before the board decided to sell.
Sources disclosed that Basajjabalaba paid sh1.5b to the national broadcaster for the land located on Faraday Road in Bugolobi, Kampala in December 2010.
It is alleged that some members of the suspended board and management secretly met Basajjabalaba to discuss the deal. It was then that he allegedly paid the money.
Later, the team that met him and all the others, discussed Basajjabalaba’s intentions before giving him a green light.
UBC in January this year signed a sale agreement and a month later handed over the property to the businessman before he paid the whole amount.
After failing to develop the land on behalf of UBC, a Kenyan company, Pinnacle Projects Limited, pulled out in 2010 and instead introduced Basajjabalaba’s Haba Group.
On December 3, 2010, Basajjabalaba wrote to the UBC board, saying he had taken over from Pinnacle.
“This is to inform you that Pinnacle Projects Limited, the developer for the Bugolobi View Villa projects on the above land, has by the instructions of the board of directors made on November 11 decided to assign the rights and obligations in the said object to our company,†the letter from Haba Group reads.
“As Haba Group (U) Ltd, we have the capacity to proceed with the development of the land.†Over two months later, Basajjabalaba paid an extra sh5b, bringing the amount to sh6.5b. Sh5b has not been paid.
The manner in which the project was handed over to Basajjabalaba was fishy, according to investigators, who argue that UBC should have invited bids after Pinnacle withdrew from the venture. Detectives have since summoned Basajjabalaba to the Special Investigations Unit in Naguru, a Kampala suburb.
New Vision has not established how Basajjabalaba wanted to develop the land.
But according to an April 8 letter to UBC, former information minister Kabakumba Matsiko states that money from the project would boost UBC’s equipment countrywide. Apparently, it is what she had been told.
Meanwhile, Wang Shu Jun, one of the directors of Sino East Africa Trade Limited, a company that bought 48-acres of land belonging to UBC in the Industrial Area, has been questioned.
His company bought the land from Extreme Innovation, a company in which two women ministers and a former woman MP are shareholders.
Jun reportedly had evidence showing that he paid over sh1b for the land. But 69 cheques for 20m each in favour of UBC bounced, which saw the corporation pay a sh8.5m fine to its bankers. UBC accountants were questioned over the transaction to confirm if he offered cash or deposited some of the money on an account.
The three politicians reportedly bought the land at sh412m but their company sold it at twice the price a year later.
Experts said an acre of land in that area would cost $1m (about 2.4b).
An emissary yesterday reportedly told detectives that Basajjabalaba was willing to report to the unit.
Wang Shu Jun of Chinese origin went to Naguru in the morning and was still there by 2:00pm.
CITY businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba reportedly paid for 18 acres of land belonging to the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) before the board decided to sell.
Sources disclosed that Basajjabalaba paid sh1.5b to the national broadcaster for the land located on Faraday Road in Bugolobi, Kampala in December 2010.
It is alleged that some members of the suspended board and management secretly met Basajjabalaba to discuss the deal. It was then that he allegedly paid the money.
Later, the team that met him and all the others, discussed Basajjabalaba’s intentions before giving him a green light.
UBC in January this year signed a sale agreement and a month later handed over the property to the businessman before he paid the whole amount.
After failing to develop the land on behalf of UBC, a Kenyan company, Pinnacle Projects Limited, pulled out in 2010 and instead introduced Basajjabalaba’s Haba Group.
On December 3, 2010, Basajjabalaba wrote to the UBC board, saying he had taken over from Pinnacle.
“This is to inform you that Pinnacle Projects Limited, the developer for the Bugolobi View Villa projects on the above land, has by the instructions of the board of directors made on November 11 decided to assign the rights and obligations in the said object to our company,†the letter from Haba Group reads.
“As Haba Group (U) Ltd, we have the capacity to proceed with the development of the land.†Over two months later, Basajjabalaba paid an extra sh5b, bringing the amount to sh6.5b. Sh5b has not been paid.
The manner in which the project was handed over to Basajjabalaba was fishy, according to investigators, who argue that UBC should have invited bids after Pinnacle withdrew from the venture. Detectives have since summoned Basajjabalaba to the Special Investigations Unit in Naguru, a Kampala suburb.
New Vision has not established how Basajjabalaba wanted to develop the land.
But according to an April 8 letter to UBC, former information minister Kabakumba Matsiko states that money from the project would boost UBC’s equipment countrywide. Apparently, it is what she had been told.
Meanwhile, Wang Shu Jun, one of the directors of Sino East Africa Trade Limited, a company that bought 48-acres of land belonging to UBC in the Industrial Area, has been questioned.
His company bought the land from Extreme Innovation, a company in which two women ministers and a former woman MP are shareholders.
Jun reportedly had evidence showing that he paid over sh1b for the land. But 69 cheques for 20m each in favour of UBC bounced, which saw the corporation pay a sh8.5m fine to its bankers. UBC accountants were questioned over the transaction to confirm if he offered cash or deposited some of the money on an account.
The three politicians reportedly bought the land at sh412m but their company sold it at twice the price a year later.
Experts said an acre of land in that area would cost $1m (about 2.4b).
An emissary yesterday reportedly told detectives that Basajjabalaba was willing to report to the unit.
Wang Shu Jun of Chinese origin went to Naguru in the morning and was still there by 2:00pm.