Energy permanent secretary warns of trick-stars

OIL AND GAS

The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Robert Kasande has warned the public against trick-stars who call promising top jobs.

He said he has received information that fraudsters use land-line telephone numbers and call various institutions and individuals purporting to be calling from his office.

He said this started on December 29, 2020. The fake callers claim that he is nominating them as board members to the board of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda.

"This is to warn the public that we are not looking for anyone to join the Board of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda or any other Institution or Agency under the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development," Kasande said.

"Those making these phone calls are fraudsters and therefore the General Public should be aware and should not fall for their scam," he added.

A few months ago, a new board of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda was sworn. Dr Jane Mulemwa as chairperson of the board. The members of the board are; Bernard Ongodia, principal Uganda Petroleum Institute, Kigumba, Doreen Kabasindi Wandera, chairperson of the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation, Dr Kevin Aanyu a lecturer at the Department of Geology and Petroleum Studies, Makerere University.

Other members are Kiryowa Kiwanuka chairman Express Football Club, Ephraim Banadda country director for African Institute for Capacity Development, an adjunct professor at Iowa State University, USA and an extra-ordinary professor at Wageningen University, Netherlands.

The final member is Lynda Biribonwa, an environment, health, safety and quality management professional. This is the second board being put in place following the expiry of the four-year term of office of the first board. The first board was set up on  November 23, 2015.

Mulemwa said the low and delayed funding, staffing, office space were major challenges faced by the previous board. Mulemwa said this during the inauguration of the new board of the authority.

"We had a problem with non-compliance of the licensed oil companies, they were not handing in reports in a timely manner, we had to pressurise them to provide us with proper and complete reports. To monitor costs you need well-documented reports," Mulemwa said.

She underscored that the difficulty to acquire land to set up different facilities for the sector affects the work of the authority indirectly.

Out of the seven board members, four are female. The setting up of the new board gives hope to the economy at a time when Uganda's expectations of seeing benefits from the industry are declining. The oil industry is expected to boost Uganda's economic growth over the next few years, according to the IMF.