{UAH} Ministers clash over land fund

Frank Mujabi,

Can you see the type of government that the Rwandan outlaw kayibanda Museveni is running? How can our country rise out of the doldrums if we have ministers operating like mafia  consigliore ( enforcer)?.  The Land Fund now is a gravy pot which is used to dispense favour, patronage and influence.

And kayibanda thinks he has hit the master stroke. By putting this corrupt woman Amongi in the position, he hopes to finish off the UPC by association. Amongi has become his right hand woman in his grand scheme of land-grabbing through legal fiat. As the hatchet woman of the Rwandan occuppier regime, Amongi is the most hated face of the UPC turn-coat, a political prostitute of very evil repute. We in the UPC will punish Amongi very severely in future. The woman is a disgrace.

Bobby.

Ministers clash over land fund

In Summary

Complaint. Ms Persis Namuganza complained that the Land Fund had been taken by Ms Amongi without her involvement

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By EPHRAIM KASOZI

KAMPALA.

A row has erupted between two political leaders at the Ministry of Lands over the management of the Land Fund.
The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms Betty Amongi, has been accused of usurping powers of her junior minister in implementation of the government plan to compensate land owners.
On January 6, Ms Persis Namuganza, the junior Lands minister, wrote that several decisions had been taken by Ms Amongi without her involvement despite being the sector minister, including the Land Fund.

"Hon. Minister, you awarded yourself unfettered discretion in management of the Land Fund, which is contrary to good ethos as in regard to teamwork and contrary to good principles of public administration," Ms Namuganza wrote to Ms Amongi.
Ms Namuganza also suggested a meeting to be convened to discuss the matter.

The complaint arose out of several instructions Ms Amongi gave to Uganda Land Commission (ULC) officials regarding the management of the Land Fund.

The Land Fund is a multipurpose resource envelop with diverse targeted beneficiaries, including tenants seeking to buy/own land, government seeking to buy land for redistribution to bonafide occupants or resettlement of the landless, loans to persons wanting to acquire titles or even survey their land.

According to correspondences seen by this newspaper, in a November 23, 2016 letter, Ms Amongi instructed the chairperson of ULC to "urgently" pay Shs621m to eight people. The minister also asked for reports on the transactions.

In a separate letter on December 15, 2016, Ms Amongi also asked the secretary to the ULC to give one Ms Kitayimbwa Houdah Namulunga Shs20m as part payment for land in Kooki County, Rakai District, to enable her go for medical treatment.

"As a mother, I do understand a desperate woman who requires treatment for infertility," the minister stated.

Again on December 16, 2016, Ms Amongi wrote to the ULC under secretary, Mr Albert J. Mugumya giving instructions on how the Land Fund would be managed. She directed that the Land Fund sub-committee must obtain the mother titles being used for payments and present them to her for scrutiny before further payment is done. "Emergency payments shall be processed after I have cleared them. That in the meantime, all clearance for any payments being charged on Land Fund should be sought from my office, pending completion of the work assigned to the Land Fund sub committee," reads the letter.

Ms Amongi also asked Mr Mugumya and one Mr Jokene to operationalise the resettlement function of the Fund saying she has a presidential directive to resettle the people in Amuru where government intends to purchase land for a sugar plantation project.

"In response to any person or authority making any directives to you, refer them to my office since my directives are anchored on my mandate as a sector minister. There is no need for appealing a directive which cannot be tenable, instead you can only inform the Permanent Secretary of the facts as I have stated," Amongi stated.
When contacted, Ms Amongi said her ministerial duties are spelt out in the Constitution and declined to make further comment.

In an interview, Ms Namuganza said: "I am only struggling to have things harmonised but she [Amongi] instead told me that her decision is final."

Ms Namuganza faulted her superior directing ULC to pay some people, which she claims has caused friction at the Lands commission.

This is the second time the two ministers have disagreed. Last year, the ministers disagreed over the planned giveaway of Zoka Central Forest Reserve in Adjumani District. Ms Namuganza said government was to give out the 6,000-hectare forest to an investor to grow sugarcane and that they were in talks with sugar producers to acquire the land.

KEY ISSUE

LAND FUND. The Land Fund is a multipurpose resource envelop with diverse targeted beneficiaries, including tenants seeking to buy/own land, government seeking to buy land for redistribution to bonafide occupants or resettlement of the landless, loans to persons wanting to acquire titles or even survey their land.

ekasozi@ug.nationmedia.com

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