The Minister for
Kampala wants a Bill on Patriotism tabled.
It is surprising that the NRM Government believes that it can use a law
to force people to love their country when in actual fact it is them that don’t
love their country.
It can be recalled
that prior to the 2011 General Elections, the people of Uganda through various
representatives wanted the Electoral Commission disbanded so that it is
constituted in a representative way given the different political shades in the
country under the chairmanship of an equivalent of a Justice of the High court,
the NRM under President Museveni could not see this implemented. Now you wonder who loves his country.
The NRM Government
change of goal posts to suit own ends is not being patriotic as it has
potential to get the country into instability.
We are aware that the Identity cards project was funded prior to the
2011 General elections. What happened to
this money to the extent that new funding is sought? If the money
went to fund the 2011 General elections in favour of NRM, how does
Government now come up with a Patriotism bill?
Refer to the Cheeye
revelation below. Is this patriotism?
UGANDA’S PERPETUAL ENERGY
CRISIS: THE PRICE OF DECEIT
The Source: The Uganda Confidential No. 542 of
November 2009
Editor Teddy Sseezi – Cheeye
(Much of the content in reference to the title can
be got from the source – The Uganda Confidential No. 542 of November 2009,
however, briefly the editor; Cheeye points out that the companies in power
business used a ‘deceitful mentality,’ in which they black mailed Uganda
Government into giving them billions of shillings in subsidies – given that it
is easier to collect billions of shillings deposited by Government into an
account than collecting from thousands of consumers and or cheaters).
One of the many sad cases in the energy sector was
the $20 million Uganda Government contract with a Canadian Company called Acres
International, in 1993, to supervise the construction of the $300 million power
extension project at then Jinja Owen Falls Dam.
The project, which was supposed to be built under the sole advice of
Acres International, was to be completed between 1994 and 2000. The project had raised high expectations in a
country that experienced frequent power cuts.
The story started in 1945 when the colonial
British Government appointed British Consultant firms Kennedy and Donkin and
Sir Alexander Gibbs to do a feasibility study for the construction of Jinja
Owen Falls Hydropower Dam, which was built at a cost of British Pounds
7,418,971. The dam was commissioned in
1954. One of the issues that Sir Gibbs
and Kennedy and Donkin established was the historical data of the water levels
of both Lake Victoria and River Nile. The establishment of water levels was
important.
The average historically guaranteed water to Egypt was quoted at 660 cubic metres per second,
based on water levels in Lake Victoria at
11.04 meters high. If water levels in
the lake went to 10 meters, then Egypt would get a minimum 550 cubic
meters per second. But if the water
levels went up to 12 meters high, then Egypt would get 880 cubic meters
per second.
In 1962, Uganda
received abnormal heavy rains; between 1962 and 1968, Lake Victoria levels shot
up 13 meters high, causing cracks in the dam, and forcing the opening of the
sluices, which allowed excessive water to flow down river, all the way to Egypt. The sudden increase in water levels surprised
the British Government. The latter then sponsored a study to come up with a
solution to further increases I water flow threats.
In 1986, Sir Gibbs, Kennedy and Donkins (1986)
advised the NRM Government that an extension to the old Owen Falls Dam be
built, at horizontal levels, to be used during ‘peak period’ when water levels
suddenly shot up. The expected station
was supposed to generate an additional 80 MW only. It was never meant to be a fully –
independent hydro power station.
Unfortunately, by 1990 when Uganda
borrowed $84 million from the World Bank to construct the second power dam, a
lot of political water had passed under the bridge: The British Government had
lost its political grip on the prudent management of Uganda’s power sector.
The then Managing Director of Uganda Electricity Board (UEB), Mr. A. R. Rutta
had studied Construction Engineering in Canada where he came to know the Canada
based Acre International. So, when time
came for Uganda
to contract a Consultant to design and oversee construction of the 2nd
Extension Power Project, he successfully lobbied for the job to be given to
Acre International. When Acre
International won the contract, they maintained that the 1962 – 1968 high water
levels would remain the same forever.
This led to wrangles between the companies (British and Canadian Acres
International), funding was frozen to Uganda after Kennedy and Donkin wrote to
World Bank that Acres International had fed them on lies. World Bank appointed one Cassidy to
arbitrate. In his judgment, Mr. Cassidy
exonerated Acre International. He said
that there were 99% chances that the high water levels would remain unchanged
forever. On their part, Kennedy and
Donkin argued that the changes in water levels were a result of global warming,
and that the raise in water levels was therefore temporary. Over the years, the British companies were
proved right.
Armed with what eventually turned out to be a
false verdict, Acres International went ahead and designed a new fully fledged
second Jinja Power station with expected capacity of 200 MW.
Uganda Government went ahead and borrowed $300
million in a bid to increase power generation from 60MW to 180MW at the Owen
Falls Dam, and construction of the Extension of the Second Hydro Power Project
which was supposed to generate 200MW.
As soon as the two dams were completed, both Acre
International and the World Bank realized that actually the water was not
enough to generate the promised total 380MW.
WHAT ABOUT BUJAGALI?
At a period when construction of hydro-power
stations averaged $1.2 million per MW, Bujagali inflated their cost to $2.5
million per MW. It is now (2009) well
over $3.4 million per MW, while elsewhere, the cost is only $1.6 million. At the end of it all, Ugandans will pay the
highest electricity tariffs in the world.
UGANDA COOKED FIGURES TO
GET IMF LENDING
The Source: The Uganda Confidential No. 542 of
November 2009
Editor Teddy Sseezi – Cheeye
“Big lessons for Uganda from the Confessions of an
Economic Hit Man”
Author – John Perkins
When an IMF team visited Uganda shortly after NRM had
just taken over power in 1986, and found that Uganda did not have economic
figures it needed as a pre-requisite for borrowing, a friendly leader of the
IMF team, a Kenyan, advised his Ugandan brothers to cook up some nice economic
figures, because there was no way the global institution could lend Uganda
money without figures.
The Ugandan team retreated in the kitchen and did
wonderful statistical spicing up of figures.
Economic growth was put at a pleasing percentage. (Teddy Cheeye)
In “Confessions of An Economic Hit Man: The
shocking inside story of how America REALLY took over the World,” John Perkins
reveals the shocking truth: Exaggerated economic projections are falsely given
in order to justify why poor countries should be lent huge credit loans which
in return are used to award big jobs to companies from donor countries, and
which consequently enslaves the borrowing countries and their people, to the
lender countries.
Economic Hit Men (EHM) are highly paid
professionals, who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of
dollars. They funnel money from the
World Bank, USAID and other foreign donors into the coffers of huge
corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s
natural resources. Their tools include
fraudulent financial reports, sex and murder.
In Uganda
for example, foreign consultants earn more than 95% of the $300 million in
annual technical assistance, while local consultants get only 5%!
CHEEYE’S ANALYSIS OF UGANDA’S FAILED MACRO ECONOMICS
The Source: The Uganda Confidential No. 542 of
November 2009
Editor Teddy Sseezi – Cheeye
In 1986, two revolutionary groups took over state
power; one in Uganda and the
other Vietnam. Both countries have troubled history of wars
and destruction. Both were subjected to
the IMF conditionalities. However, Vietnam refused
some of this global money lender’s policies, for instance they refused to lose
grip of their national banking sector. Uganda however
implemented wholesale the privatization.
As a result, twenty three years down the road, Vietnam had made it to a Middle Income Country –
and is the second leading country after Thailand. According to the World Bank’s World
Development Report (2009); Reshaping Economic Geography, Vietnam’s GDP for 2006 – 2007, was a cool $71.2
billion while Uganda’s
stood at a $11.2 billion.
While Vietnam’s
exports stood at $48.3 billion those from Uganda were a miserable $1.5
billion. Further more, while Ugandans
had a higher GDP per capita of $260 in 1986; more than Vietnam’s $220
in 1994, the latter’s figure has since then jumped four-fold, to $1,020 by
2008. But Uganda’s GDp per capita failed
to increase by even one fold, her GDP per capita in 2008 was a mere $280. (Source, USA
Department of State, October 2009).
Similarly, when the NRM took over power in 1986, Malaysia was at about the same level of
development as Uganda. Both were subjected to the economic policies
by IMF and World Bank. Malaysia refused wholesale capital
liberalization which move enabled Malaysia
to survive the 1998 financial crisis in Asia. However, Uganda accepted the liberalization
policies wholesale has since suffered from the ills of capital flight in
addition to having a dwarf reserve account.
Twenty three years down the road, Malaysia
is a Middle Income country while Uganda is a Least Income
country. The World Bank report cited Malaysia’s GDP in 2006 – 2007 at $180.7 billion
as compared to Uganda’s
$11.2 billion. Malaysia
exported goods and services worth $176 billion, compared to imports of only
$146.9 billion; meaning that it had a $39.8 billion trade surplus. In the same period, Uganda exported
goods and services worth only $1.5 billion against imports of $3.3 billion;
meaning that her deficit was $1.8 billion.
Uganda’s official rate of
GDP is suspect. While Ugandans are told
that economic growth has averaged 8% for the last many years, the World Bank
report, page 353 put Uganda’s
GDP economic growth for 2006-2007 at an average of 2.9%, compared to that of Vietnam which
was 7.2%.
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