When veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda posted a video of weary passengers stranded at Entebbe International Airport, his words cut deeper than the images themselves. “The tragedy happening at Uganda Airlines is far beyond even my 2019 doomsday predictions,” he wrote on X. “One plane is stuck in Lagos, another in London, passengers stranded.” In Mwenda’s telling, the situation had become so dire that “even God cannot save this airline.” It was a brutal assessment, amplified by his stature and timing, and it landed at a moment when Uganda Airlines could least afford another blow to public confidence. Days earlier journalist…
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For over two years, Uganda’s Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) ignored major red flags from the Auditor General about irregular recruitment—an oversight that has now spiraled into a national scandal, culminating in a presidential order to sack 152 unqualified staff. The unraveling of this scandal began with the Auditor General’s financial year report ending June 2023, which revealed that the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) had recruited at least 136 staff on both permanent and contractual basis without following any competitive interviews or merit-based assessment procedures. These irregular appointments bypassed standard recruitment protocols, raising serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and adherence…
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Parliament’s Committee on Public Accounts – Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has asked the Uganda National Roads Authority to explain the cost of the 51-kilometre Kampala-Entebbe Expressway. In a probe over queries raised by the Auditor General, the committee noted that the UGX35 billion per kilometre cost of the tolled expressway looks exorbitant and the roads agency should explain. “How do we justify this to a lay person other than me; if this one is costing UGX35.4 billion per kilometre is a bit high,” said committee chairperson, Joel Ssenyonyi. The road cost US$476 million, approximated to be UGX1.8…
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The High Court in Kampala has quashed Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) report sighting illegalities while conducting investigations on properties under the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board (DAPCB). Mohammed Allibhai, the applicant had dragged the Attorney General to court seeking court to review the acts of the COSASE subcommittee in investigating properties already handled by the court and other processes, confirming rightful ownership. Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka had already distanced himself from the committee’s report recommending the cancellation of repossession certificates held by owners of the properties, stating that it could result in lawsuits. In…
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For executing shoddy construction works on the Bank of Uganda (BoU) Currency Centre in Kabale, Kigezi sub-region, Pearl Construction Company is likely to be blacklisted from taking on any other construction work for government if recommendations of Parliament are implemented. This comes after Parliament approved a report of the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) on the audited accounts of Bank of Uganda in the Financial Year 2014/2015. COSASE led by Kawempe South MP Mubarak Munyagwa found that the Central bank made a loss of UGX12 billion to procure Roko Construction Company to renovate the work on…
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The sub-committee of the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has exonerated property mogul Sudhir Ruparelia after its probe found that he genuinely owns the Plot 24, Kampala road. The Departed Asians Properties Custodian Board (DAPCB) had in July 2019 told the probe sub-committee chaired by Makindye East MP Ibrahim Kasozi that tycoon Sudhir’s property was never reposed by the original proprietors before selling it to him. But, in its report to Parliament that is set to be presented and adopted today, the probe sub-committee listed the country’s money magnet as the rightful owner of the…
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Members of Parliament on the Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) committee are investigating how UGX15 Billion disappeared from an accounts belonging to the Departed Asians Property Custodian Board. A handover report from the divestiture committee of the custodian board shows that UGX15 billion was on the account in Bank of Uganda accruing from the sale of 1,524 properties belonging to departed Asians. The legislators, on Wednesday, met finance minister Matia Kasaija together with officials from his ministry, among whom was Permanent Secretary Keith Muhakanizi, to explain the anomalies on the bank accounts which have funds mainly from sold…
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The Criminal Investigation Department of police (CID) has written to Bank of Uganda to produce the current Director Financial Markets Development, Benedict Sekabira in court to answer charges of concealing title deeds under section 278 of the penal code. This comes after two years since the Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) chaired by Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu, recommended that Central Bank officials involved in the wrongful and illegal sale and closure of defunct banks be held personally liable. The banks included International Credit Bank, Greenland Bank, Cooperative Bank, Global Trust Bank, National Bank of…
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A group of youths under the Poor Youth Network have petitioned the President Yoweri Museveni over what they have termed as ‘excessive legal fees payments’ in court case between the Bank of Uganda and former shareholders of Crane Bank Limited (under receivership). In the petition, Ssempala Zahid, the national spokesperson for Poor Youth Movement copied to the World Bank, the Speaker of Parliament, and IMF among others, calls for the president’s intervention into the matter so that the case is settled outside court to save the tax payers money. “We are writing to inform you that, on 23rd June 2020,…
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Prominent Ugandan-Asian businessmen involved in property repossessions more than 20 years under their umbrella body, the Association of Expropriated Properties Owners Limited, have taken strong exception to the conduct of the select task-force of the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that is currently conducting an inquiry into the affairs of the properties, saying the MPs have ignored court adjudication. The committee has, since July last year, been probing the acquisition or repossession of properties by individuals after their former owners, who were expelled in 1972, have either not returned to repossess them or were compensated…
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