Two more companies dispute debt claims

Nov 01, 2007

Two more companies have disputed claims that they owe the Government money.

By Vision Reporter

Two more companies have disputed claims that they owe the Government money.

The Auditor General recently released a list of companies and individuals that owed the Government sh1.2 trillion.

The list, distributed in Parliament and published in The New Vision, included Kakira Sugar Works and the Uganda Development Bank, but the two companies have refuted the claims.

The Auditor General, in his report to Parliament, had stated that as of June 30, 2006, sh1.2 trillion in loans was still outstanding and “considered irrecoverable, pending parliamentary approval to be written off as bad debt.”

The list that was handed over to the public accounts committee, put the debt owed by Kakira Sugar at sh34.8b, and that owed by the Uganda Development Bank at sh6b.
“Kakira Sugar Works did not owe any money to the Ministry of Finance or have any debts to pay the Government on June 30, 2006,” said the firm’s projects director, Farhan Nakhooda.

He said the company received loans from the World Bank and the African Development Bank through the Government in 1987 to fund rehabilitation work.

“These loans were fully repaid to the Ministry of Finance on July 4, 2000, when the Government divested its balance of 30% shareholding to East African Holdings.”

He complained that the firm had not been given a copy of the Auditor General’s report “nor has the Auditor General’s office contacted us to verify whether the amount that is stated to be outstanding is accurate or justified.”
Uganda Development Bank, in a letter to The New Vision, also denied it owed the Government any money.

The bank’s management said it was put under restructuring by the Government in September 1997. As part of the process, it added, the non-performing loans were transferred to NPART, where recoveries would be payable to the Government.

“The liability of sh5.9b was extinguished in August 2006 by transfers of non-performing loans to NPART to be collected for the account of the Government.”

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