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Bahati chairs ministerial consultations on draft National Development Plan 2020/21-2024/25

Gerald Businge — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 08:53:47 +0000

Minister of State for Planning David Bahati yesterday chaired the Ministerial consultations (January and early February 2020) on the draft third National Development Plan (NDP III) 2020/21- 2024/25 which is expected to be finalised by June 2020.

Bahati in during meeting

The National Development Plan (NDP III) priorities remain Agriculture, Tourism, Minerals, Petroleum and Manufacturing in addition to Human capital development and Infrastructure.

A total of 20 national strategies and 18 national programs have been articulated under each of the five NDP 3 objectives for the achievement of the overall goal.

NDP III is introducing Program approach to focus on delivery of common results, aligned with Program Based Budgeting that is already operational.

There will also be an increased role of the State for purposes of investing strategically more so in infrastructure and human capital development.

More focus will also be on digitalization for efficient delivery of services as well as introduction of the Parish model to bring Government services and support nearer to the people.

According to NPA Chairperson Prof. Pamela Mbabazi some of the challenges that NDP III is expected to fix include: The inadequate creation of jobs, dependence on rain fed agriculture and inadequate investment in the productive sectors of the economy such as agriculture and manufacturing.

The Strategic direction of NDP III was approved by Cabinet in September 2019.

Bahati said basing on the lessons learnt from NDP 1 and 2, government proposes that NDP 3 focus should be on increasing household incomes and improving the quality of life of Ugandans as the overall goal.

“Industrialization should be the vehicle for generating inclusive growth, employment and sustainable wealth creation,” said Bahati.

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URA’s Allen Kagina concerned on Petroleum and Public Finance Bills

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 18:34:33 +0000

Uganda Revenue Authority says it is satisfied with the petroleum bill in its current form but still has issues with the public finance bill.

The Commissioner General Allen Kagina says they initially had issues with both bills but after meeting the ministers of finance and energy some issues were cleared with only a few others still pending.

She says that they had agreed to delete some clauses in the finance management bill that restricted URA to only collection which is a very narrow and incapacitating provision.

URA boss, ALlen kagina

Kagina also says that if URA’S submission is considered the bill will be aligned to the income tax act that stipulates penalty and the petroleum exploration development and production bill.

She now urges parliament to consider the URA’s submissions if the finance management bill is to be helpful to the country.

Before they went on recess, the MPs were handling the oil bills but failed to reach a conclusion following disagreement between parliament and the executive on the powers given to the minister in the bills.

The MPs said that the minister was given too much powers compared to the roles of other stake holders.

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Key issues of contention in Uganda’s oil sector reflected in case against Tullow and Government

Gerald Businge — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 02:55:21 +0000

Kampala based lawyer Hamada Mulumba has filed a petition in the High Court seeking an injusction against the government granting of oil licenses and approving oil deals and halting the activities of Tullow oil company.

Through Bwambale , Musede and Co. Advocates, Mulumba states that 50% of the stake Tullow Bought from Heritage Oil was had already reverted to the government. Mulumba wants a declaration that Kingfisher discovery ceased to form part of the petroleum exploration area for Heritage and Tullow when Heritage failed to ask for a production license for block 3A after the exploration lincense had expired beyond the renewable eight years provided by the law.

Mulumba wants court to restrain the Attorney General, Heritage Oil and Gas Limited and Tullow Oil Uganda from “undertaking any further dealings including but not limited to exploration, production, selling, assigning, transferring any interest in exploration Area 3A (EA-3A) kingfisher (Kajubirizi) of the Albertine Graben.” Tullow which co-owns 3A with Heritage bought the later interests at 1.5billion US dollars in 2010. The company which now owns almost 100% of all the oil wells so far identified is planning to farm out 33% of its stake of France’s Total and another 33% to China’s CNOOC. The government is yet but expected to approve the sale by end of January 2012.

Here is a summary of the key issues of concern

The government is not ready to undertake oil production (more preparation and laws needed)
All Heritage Oil and gas assets sold to Tullow were null and void as the former’s license on Block #A (Kingfisher exploration had ended) and as per 19 (1) (b) of the Act they reverted the government.
The Memorandum of understanding signed between Tullow and Uganda government to normalize the license issue is null and void as it is inconsistent with the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act 1993
Licenses for the oil blocks should be made in accordance with the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority Act (open bidding).
The Court cases between Tullow oil and Heritage Oil and gas, as well as between the Uganda Revenue Authority (on behalf of the Uganda Government) and Heritage Oil and Gas –are warning signs of how uncertain it is that Ugandans will benefit from the oil sector.
The recent corruption allegations that top ministers have received hefty bribes from oil companies to give the companies favourble deals have further increased worries on the running of the oil sector and increased concerns that Ugandans might not benefit from the oil resource.
The increasing insistence by the government to keep oil production sharing agreements secret raises issues at what the government is hiding, how much has been given away and whether oil companies and not taking advantage of the country.
The confidentiality (secrecy) clauses in the Production sharing agreements no longer apply since the license with the companies with which the agreements were signed have since expired. According to section 59 of the Production Sharing agreement, the confidentiality clauses cease to exist when the license ceases to exist. It is for this very reason Ultimate media decided to publish the oil agreements.