Uganda Airlines Liquidated

BY Yunusu Abbey & Charlotte Kukunda THE liquidation of Uganda Airlines Corporation has started and all the 40 skeleton staff who were running the company sent home. The Solicitor General in a May 5 letter, appointed Mr. Twebaze Bemanya, a senior state attorney, as the liquidator. Ms Juliet Nagawa, a state attorney, will be Bemanya's deputy. Mr. Michael Opagi, the Privatisation Unit boss, told The New Vision yesterday that Cabinet approved the liquidation. "Bemanya took over from the co-ordinator and he is supposed to liquidate the airline. All the former workers have been paid their terminal benefits," Opagi said. Bemanya said Ms Jennifer Musiime, who has been the airlines' co-ordinator since April last year, has already given him the airline's assets. These include vehicles, a building housing its headquarters in Entebbe, about 10 bungalows in Entebbe, an estate in Kanyanya, office furniture and equipment as well as another house in Kisugu. "On Sunday, I will be travelling to South Africa to take over the airlines property there. Later this month, I will go to the United Kingdom and check on some spare parts lying there," Bemanya said. He said he was yet to recover the airlines' assets in Dubai, Nairobi, Bujumbura and Lusaka where it had offices. On the airline's routes, Bemanya said since the routes belonged to the government, it had the powers to decide on what to do with them. He said he did not know how long the liquidation exercise would last. On October 13, 2000, the airline's 44-seater Fokker Friendship (F.27), was sold to a foreign firm, Avtrade at $250,000. Denis Lewis, the Avtrade boss, handed over the cheque to Manzi Tumubweine, the finance state minister (privatisation). In April last year, UAC was restructured and 86 workers laid off. Dick Turinawe, who was the acting general manager, and Acali Manzi, the corporation secretary, were retrenched and paid their terminal benefits. The liquidation followed failure to sell UAC to South African Airways, which had expressed interest to buy it. Ends