Government has revised the loan request to buy out electricity distribution company, UMEME, from over US$190 million, to over US$118 million.
This was contained in the Special Audit Report for the end of lease and assignment between UMEME Limited and Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) that was adopted during plenary sitting on Thursday, 27 March 2025.
The report was tabled by the Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (General Duties), Hon. Henry Musasizi.
On 20 March 2025, Parliament adopted the proposal for Government to borrow over US$190 million from Stanbic Bank, on condition of confirmation of actual monetary amount of UMEME’s investment by the Auditor General.
Before the revised figure was passed, during plenary sitting on Thursday, 27 March 2025, Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa urged government to put into consideration the special audit report when finalising with UMEME.
“This morning, the Auditor General submitted a special audit report, verifying and confirming the buyout amount of US$118 million against the approved US$190,” he said.
This however sparked opposition from Kira Municipality Member of Parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Ssemujju, who called for scrutiny of the report before it is adopted.
“We have never passed a report of the Auditor General without the MPs reading it. We have accountability committees that deal with these reports. Have you waived those particular rules that [now] reports can be passed without MPs processing them,” Ssemujju asked.
Leader of the Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi, questioned the move to adopt the report, saying that by so doing, Parliament would be handing over its appropriation mandate to the Executive.
“The Auditor General’s report should be verified and studied, before we pass. It would be good to know what is in the report,” he said.
But the Deputy Speaker guided that the special audit report, unlike annual reports does not require to be referred to a committee.
“This is a time bound report, we must sort out UMEME by 31 March [2025]. It is a matter of beating deadlines, which is in the contract. If we do not settle, UMEME will have a blank cheque to determine penalties and interests,” Tayebwa said.
Hon. Ekanya Geofrey (FDC, Tororo North County) agreed with the Deputy Speaker, citing practices from neighboring countries like Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa where, he said, governments there do not wait for Parliament approval before implementing such reports.
“Special audit reports have issues of criminal in nature, but also this report is time bound. We request that Speaker invokes the necessary rules so that when Parliament takes a decision, it is within our Rules,” Ekanya said.
Africa Fact: Lalibela is not the only place in Ethiopia to have such wonders. A cotemporary archaeologist reports research that was conducted in the region in the early 1970’s when: “startling numbers of churches built in caves or partially or completely cut from the living rock were revealed not only in Tigre and Lalibela but as far south as Addis Ababa. Soon at least 1,500 were known. At least as many more probably await revelation.”
Preach Man
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”
sweetness
Hoezit /Howzit – How is it going? How are you? A common greeting which is often used instead of “hello” and “how are you?” It combines the two phrases into a simple, “Howzit”, thereby saving time.Example: “Howzit my bru!”