TERP has no CHOGM tax arrears - Rwabwogo

Jun 24, 2008

Refer to the Weekly Observer article of last week claiming that the TERP group is under query over CHOGM taxes unpaid. We want to categorically state that our company has not been queried by anyone and we have no record of this from any government agency. TERP group has no CHOGM accrued taxes unpaid

BY ODREK RWABWOGO

Refer to the Weekly Observer article of last week claiming that the TERP group is under query over CHOGM taxes unpaid. We want to categorically state that our company has not been queried by anyone and we have no record of this from any government agency. TERP group has no CHOGM accrued taxes unpaid. We have never sought any tax exemption in our 10 years of existence.

Contrary to these allegations, the TERP group was never directly contracted to do any CHOGM-related work. Our company was part of a consortium led by Saatchi & Saatchi with over 100 suppliers and partners. In the execution of work, TERP never handled, billed nor received any funds from any government agency. If any of the companies in this exercise asked for a tax exemption, we have no knowledge and cannot, therefore, be held responsible. It is not surprising that the opposition press, picks TERP again and again; blatant lies told about it and my picture chosen from among other listed queries unrelated to our work, screaming headlines inscripted; all used to justify a fake story. What the public needs to know is that beneath these headlines, lurks professional shallowness, reporters deliberate effort to tell lies, subtle tribal overtones, all combined in one package as ‘news’ .

We also notice that there is an effort by the writer to connect TERP to the ‘planted lettering’ at the Clock Tower. We never participated in anything to do with roads or beautification of the city for CHOGM. We cannot comprehend the motive of the source of these repeated lies other than malice and negative propaganda. We know unprofessional reporters, who specialise in political witch hunt, choose an angle to report on much before the story is researched, and then proceed to justify that angle with false information. We wonder if they know that this behaviour cannot stand any professional or international scrutiny.

Deliberate ploy by opposition press
If one looks closely, there is a pattern the opposition press is struggling to paint: Beti Kamya alleged that we introduced the ill-fated TV licence in 2005. We sued her and the case is before the judge. Kizza Besigye went to a rally in Kiruhura district recently and lied that all CHOGM funds were taken by us. Erias Lukwago alleged that we got a contract to wash CHOGM cars. Daily Monitor alleged that Socket Works, a company we introduced here to bring digital resources to schools at no cost to educational institutions, had caused revenue loss to MUBS. In spite of evidence to the contrary presented by the university, Chris Obore, the story writer, still walks whistling high to the sky with no remorse. Then there was The Red Pepper Sandhurst story of my entry into the army. I have also seen references to my wife being ‘given’ a grain store at URA, receiving a bullion van full of money from the US and many other ridiculous stories published by Semujju Nganda and his colleagues.

We have exercised deep patience as a family in the face of these attacks because we have neither the time nor the resources to reply daily and most importantly, we believe the politicians with their painfully shallow media platforms would like us to come down to their level and waste our precious time. We want the public to know these are all fabricated lies and should be treated with contempt. These false stories are perpetuated by people in the opposition working with some elements in the Government and the media. The purpose is to create a ‘believable’ fallacy, a narrative of sorts, that we live because someone offers us the means from a public purse. This is the subtle corrosive message they are trying to plant in the public consciousness.

There are three main reasons we think these stories are pointed at us. We would like to share these with the readers.

Relationship with the President
Firstly, there has been a concerted effort to make us feel victims of the relationship with the President; this is as if any one has a choice of who should be their relative. The unsaid but clear message is to paint the President as ‘corrupt’ using his family and those perceived close to him. This started with Besigye’s group and his supporters at Daily Monitor in 2003 when they came to terms with the fact that the President’s reputation is unassailable and had to find a new way of attacking his credentials. This they thought would be a political strategy to use against him and the Movement internationally and in fact, people like Anne Bwomezi have this as a brief and do it for a living. They are the authors of Radio Katwe.com and all the rubbish posted online. This is why you see headlines using terms like ‘in laws, Gen. Museveni’. The purpose is to demean the President’s stature and present him as some sort of an unelected military man who works through his relatives.

We chose to keep quiet in the face of these lies because many Ugandans know President Museveni’s history and have worked closely with him. They know he has never and will never order anyone in his Government to do business with anyone associated with him. We would like all Ugandans to know that we stand on our merit and strength in spite of the perceptions peddled by the opposition and their media backers. We face challenges squarely and firmly like all Africans of our generation. The Rwabwogo family was ‘sanitised’ against corruption long before Besigye and his media platforms came on the scene because we know what we believe in. For example, we took an early decision not to seek employment in any government institution yet we have a right to work anywhere in our country. We have turned down several jobs and persisted in the private sector where we are continuously besieged by lying politicians who suppose we should have no place to work. We are confident that our decision was right. We know we will make it.

Fight against corruption
Secondly, in the middle of 2006, we declared war on corruption. In the past, some media houses and civil servants came to our staff for bribes cloaked as ‘commissions’ from the same institutions they worked for on almost every payment that we would receive. It bothered us so much but we were much concerned about our survival as a business in a world where almost all our competitors were doing the same. We obviously had been run by fear and had not seen the wider picture of where this was leading us. We eventually made a decision to step out on our own and refused to follow the ‘herd mentality’. We became a target of attack daily; our staff accosted everywhere at functions and in bars; we were denied business in many of the institutions where we plainly and competitively won bids. With hindsight, we thank God for this courage. A small change by any company in that direction will free resources to serve our nation. We know there are many companies suffering under this yoke. You would help yourselves and our country if you stand up. The media never even mentions this since there is a conspiracy of silence fuelled by money, connections with opposition and some corrupt elements in government who all work in tandem. The free are vilified and the corrupt are applauded. We urge the private sector to stand firm against this scourge. People need to know that most news papers in Uganda, particularly The Red Pepper, The Weekly Observer, Daily Monitor and some radio stations, have reporters on pay roll by some politicians and public servants to exhort money from people using planted stories.

An industry of ‘cash- for- stories’ has swiftly sprung up and is aided by our poor media law enforcement. An example is a senior lawyer at MUBS who wrote a fake report about Socket Works and sent emissaries to us for bribes and when these could not be answered, decided to send the report to Daily Monitor. Obore, the usual conduit, called ingratiating himself to me saying he was from ‘Kashari and had relatives in Mbarara’ as if his birthplace was his qualification for reporting. When we asked him to crosscheck his story, he instead published his concoctions the next day without reference to the company. Fortunately, our patience normally pays. Together with our international partners, we have now opened a law suit against Agakhan and all his businesses in an international court out of the US with a wider reach. He will have to prove why it is important that his newspaper in Uganda keeps politicians on its payroll disguised as reporters and have no pretence at descent journalism.

Open player in politics
Thirdly, I have been an open player in the past in our politics. I have supported the NRM since I was a teenager. I continue to do so now as a businessman. My silence over the last seven years probably bothers Besigye and his handlers which is why they keep sending the Ngandas and Obore’s to track me from my house in the village to find out what I am doing and in whose constituency I am and which business I am doing. The only answer I can give them is that they will not draw me into politics. I will choose my timing and my cause. To some Government officials who I know are quietly acquiescing in this exercise, I cannot sincerely fathom your game plan. To serve a government during the day and oppose it in the night through media plants is one of the cheapest things one should do in life. It is very dehumanising to your soul and your legacy. Why don’t you stand up for what you believe in instead of using the media as a smokescreen? To all our friends, just know that the truth always sets free. We are as free as birds in the air in all these allegations and that is why they all wash off our skins like wet mud.

The writer is the Managing Director of the TERP Group

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