{UAH} Gen Tumwine, Bigirimana row escalates@WHY WILL IT END?
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12:42 PM |
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Title fight: Pius Bigirimana (L) and Gen Elly Tumwine
New information from the Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC), the government agency that runs the National Theatre and Nommo Gallery, contradicts earlier statements by Tumwine, that he had a binding arrangement with the centre to build, operate and transfer (BOT).
"No tenancy agreement has ever been signed between UNCC and Creations Ltd," a UNCC board member who preferred anonymity told The Observer.
Creations Ltd is Tumwine's company that runs Nommo Gallery. The row stems from Bigirimana's desire to evict Tumwine from the Nommo Gallery, a government property located in upscale Nakasero, which the general has occupied for at least two decades, allegedly without paying rent. Tumwine claims the B.O.T arrangement exempts him from paying rent.
A source familiar with the row says some members of the board have now appealed to President Museveni to rein in his general. The Observer has learnt that UNCC has summoned Tumwine many times in meetings meant largely to resolve the standoff but nothing has come of the meetings.
According to the board member, Tumwine took over Nommo Gallery in 1990s when he was the board chairman of UNCC. He is reported to have argued that Nommo Gallery belonged to visual artists. As a visual artist himself, he pledged to reorganise the gallery into a vibrant national collection of art. He also promised to tarmac the compound and fence off the area.
The Observer this week reported that in his first month at the Gender, Labour and Social Development ministry, Bigirimana took the bold step of asking Tumwine, a senior NRA historical turned anti-corruption crusader, to move out of Nommo Gallery (see, Bigirimana blows whistle on Gen Elly Tumwine, The Observer, July 24-25, 2013).
The Gender ministry is demanding millions in rent. The battle, sources say, stretches to a wider fight between Tumwine and Bigirimana more so over the Shs 50bn scandal in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).
As an army MP, Tumwine enthusiastically pushed for Bigirimana to account for the money or face jail like his former Principal Accountant Godfrey Kazinda. But Bigirimana argues that he blew the whistle on the OPM scam, an excuse that even Museveni agrees with. Tumwine this week told The Observer that he had a "Build, Operate and Transfer" arrangement with the ministry, meaning he would not pay rent until the property has been transferred to the government.
In an interview today referred to claims of him defaulting as "absolute rubbish."
"If Birigimana put a shilling on any of the property, then he should demand for it. But if some people are guilty and looking for escape routes, we will find out," he said.
"Does Birigimana know the idea behind the Nommo Gallery? It is not for collecting money but promoting art which I have done. I found the Nommo Gallery in a very sore state. It was an abandoned place covered in the bush. They [UNCC] couldn't find money to slash it. I used my own money to clear the anti hills and opened up the restaurant to attract the people to the area."
"Whoever is at the Nommo Gallery and National Theatre is benefitting from my initiatives to generate money, otherwise they would have close. I created the crafts village, which was previously a bushy place. I started the parking lot, which had been stolen by some unscrupulous people in KCC."
Disowned
But members of the board who spoke to The Observer roundly dispute Tumwine's claim. The board members argue that what Tumwine did was to fully establish his hegemony at Nommo Gallery by putting up a three roomed structure measuring 6X20 meters in 1997. In the same year, he also entered into a private deal that saw part of the Nommo Gallery given away to a business person to put up Pearl restaurant.
Apparently, there were efforts by UNCC to originate a tenancy agreement with Creations Ltd, but the efforts were hampered by the alleged lack of clarity over the ownership of the gallery. So, the board at the time preferred to shelve the matter until the land title was found.
The land title for the Nommo Gallery which neighbours State Lodge was under contention –with National Housing and Construction Company claiming ownership.
Gen secure title
But Tumwine, a highly connected soldier, is said to have played a great role in securing the land title back into the names of UNCC. This gave him a lee way to use the property without anyone touching him. The Pearl restaurant, for example, just started in 2007 to remit dues to UNCC of Shs2.2m per month –meaning that for 10 years since 1997 when the restaurant was established, it did not remit Shs264m to UNCC.
For Tumwine's structures in which he runs personal businesses like visual art exhibitions, he has never paid a single penny to UNCC. In May this year, he was summoned by the current board headed by Dr Mercy Mirembe Ntagaare over the same tenancy issue, and Tumwine is reported to have told the board that 'he was a tenant whose status should be legalised.'
He said his stay carried the same arrangement as that of Pearl restaurant, of building, operating and transferring the structures to UNCC. But the board insists that Tumwine should be paying fees to UNCC just like Pearl restaurant is doing, which means that for the last 16 years, Tumwine should have paid Shs422.4m to UNCC –if we are to go by the rate charged for Pearl restaurant. In total, Tumwine's stay at Nommo Gallery has cost UNCC about 686.4m.
Tumwine also owns two kiosks at the crafts village at the National Theatre. But since 2001 when he opened these kiosks, he has not paid tenancy fees. He only started paying in April. A kiosk at the crafts village pays Shs750,000 per a quarter (three months). This means that for the last 12 years, Tumwine did not pay Shs 72m to UNCC for the two shops.
This revenue would have gone a long way in lessening the financial burden of UNCC, whose facilities are in appalling state.dtlumu@observer.ug
smusasizi@observer.ug
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"War is nothing but a continuation of political intercourse, with a mixture of other means. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
