By Guest Writer The Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) has moved to block an alleged US$14 million (about Shs52 billion) government payment linked to Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) chairman Odrek Rwabwogo. This is happening at the time when the dispute over the committee’s legal status, access to public funds and accountability escalates and deepens. Kasambya County MP Hon David Kabanda, who also doubles as the Executive Secretary to PLU chairman Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, said the organisation was asking the Ministry of Finance and other government agencies to stop dealing with PACEID until questions surrounding its establishment, financing, staffing and accountability are resolved. Kabanda was speaking while conveying the message given to him by Gen. Kainerugaba following his recent declaration that PACEID is an illegal entity and an outfit not legally created. He said the PLU position was based on directives from Gen. Kainerugaba, who is also Chief of Defense Forces and Senior Presidential Adviser on Special Operations. According to Kabanda, President Yoweri Museveni has constitutional authority to create, abolish or merge government departments and agencies but such institutions must subsequently be placed within an appropriate legal and administrative framework that defines their staffing structures, source of funding, governance arrangements and accountability mechanisms. He questioned where PACEID fits within that framework, arguing that the committee receives public money despite what he described as uncertainty over its legal foundation and reporting structure. “The country needs to know who appointed him as the chairman of PACEID,” Kabanda said, questioning whether Rwabwogo went through the procedures ordinarily required for the creation and staffing of a government entity. He demanded to know the process through which Rwabwogo became the PACEID boss and who he competed with. Renowned for taking no prisoners, Kabanda also questioned who serves as PACEID’s accounting officer, who recruited its employees, who pays for its offices and where the organisation submits its financial accountability for possible scrutiny. Kabanda argued that Rwabwogo was appointed by President Museveni as a senior presidential adviser on special duties, but that appointment, in his view, did not automatically create an independent government organisation with authority to recruit staff and administer public funds outside established government structures. Making it clear he was conveying his Principal Gen MK’s concerns, Kabanda compared the situation to other presidential initiatives, including the Anti-Corruption Unit, saying that even units established by the President operate through defined government procedures for recruitment, appointment and accountability. The PLU official also challenged PACEID’s involvement in appointing or deploying trade envoys, arguing that Uganda already has a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic missions responsible for the country’s external relations. In his view, any specialized commercial appointments should be made through the appropriate government structures rather than through a presidential advisory committee. The dispute has now been given greater urgency following the allegations surrounding the US$14 million payment. Kabanda alleged that Rwabwogo is in line to receive the money from the Ugandan government over a transaction involving the supply of helicopters and other materials to the neighboring South Sudan. He questioned why Uganda’s Treasury would be required to pay the money if the alleged supplies were made to the South Sudanese government. He further alleged that the transaction involved Thomas Farm Company Limited, a company he said is registered in Uganda and associated with Rwabwogo. Kabanda questioned how a company whose registered business activities he described as being related to milk (as per the company articles & constitution) could become involved in a transaction involving helicopters and supplies to the South Sudan government. “If you supplied the government of South Sudan and you are not in the original agreement, why don’t you go to South Sudan and ask them to pay you?” Kabanda asked. He claimed that information reaching the PLU indicated that the Ministry of Finance was in the process of paying Rwabwogo the alleged US$14million and called on the ministry to halt the transaction. The allegations, however, require documentary verification. The specific US$14 million claim, the contractual arrangements surrounding the alleged helicopter supply and the basis upon which Uganda would be responsible for payment were not independently established from the material available for this report. The figure involved would amount to more than Shs50 billion, making the matter potentially significant for public-finance accountability if the alleged payment is confirmed. Kabanda said the PLU also wanted government agencies and local governments to stop dealing with PACEID until its legal status is clarified. The demand follows Gen. Kainerugaba’s public declaration that PACEID is an illegal organisation. Kainerugaba has accused the committee of corruption and threatened arrests of individuals he said were involved in wrongdoing. He has also criticised media organizations for giving PACEID officials a platform to respond to the accusations. Gen Kainerugaba also demanded that government agencies like the Finance Ministry stop dealing with PACEID and Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo or else invite trouble to themselves. The military chief’s intervention has transformed what might otherwise have remained an administrative dispute into a high-level political confrontation involving senior figures close to President Museveni. Rwabwogo, who is married to President Museveni’s daughter Bishop Patience, has publicly defended PACEID and its work, while the committee has rejected accusations that it operates outside government structures or misuses public resources. PACEID was established as a presidential initiative to promote Uganda’s exports and industrial development. Its activities have included efforts to address constraints facing exporters, promote Ugandan products in international markets and support investment and value addition. The committee has previously said its work can be verified through government institutions and private-sector companies that have benefited from its programmes. It has also rejected what it described as false and malicious claims circulating on social media. The confrontation has nevertheless broadened beyond PACEID’s institutional status and now includes allegations concerning Rwabwogo’s other private business interests with Kabanda seemingly determined to lift the veil. During the Thursday media engagement, Kabanda revived claims concerning land at Nshaara in Kiruhura District, alleging that Rwabwogo initially introduced a Chinese company to the President for a proposed beef-processing project but later acquired interests in the land after the project failed to materialize. He alleged that the land titles were subsequently changed and that Rwabwogo is now using the property for grazing. These claims have not been established through a court judgment or an official finding and would require verification from land records and the parties involved. Kabanda also criticized Rwabwogo, currently the only Ugandan who shares a bed with a female Bishop, for what he described as involvement in several sectors, saying the PACEID chairman has interests or activities spanning coffee, milk, media and other businesses, in addition to his role as a presidential adviser. He sarcastically called on Rwabwogo tame his appetite and learn to become satisfied with colossal sums of money he potentially accesses from the church tithe. The increasingly public dispute has also resulted in reports of the detention of Matthew Bagonza, the head of the PACEID secretariat and a close associate of Rwabwogo. He has been Rwabwogo protégé since the year 2010. Reports show that security personnel picked up Bagonza from his home, although the circumstances of his reported detention and any charges against him had not been fully established in public statements. Rwabwogo has since vowed to fight for the restoration of Bagonza’s liberty. The controversy has placed the government in a difficult position. On one hand is a presidential initiative that has operated publicly for several years and has undertaken programmes intended to support exports and industrial development. On the other hand, are senior figures within the ruling establishment demanding that its legal foundation, finances and activities be subjected to greater scrutiny. In 2018, Parliament of Uganda recommended that the government pays outstanding arrears amounting to $41m (Shs150 billion) to 10 Ugandan companies that supplied maize and sorghum to the government of South Sudan. The goods had been supplied following a bloody civil war which broke out between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his exiled former vice president, Dr Riek Machar. The 10 companies, under the Uganda South Sudan Grain Traders and Suppliers Association Ltd, supplied maize and sorghum to 10 South Sudan states under the Strategic Grain Reserves Suppliers for $56m (Shs205 billion) between 2008-2010. Under the agreement, the money was to be paid in five instalments. However, along the way, Kabanda says that the records before the PLU indicate that Rwabwogo whose company (Thomas Farm Limited) had reportedly not been among the list of ten beneficiaries also claimed to have supplied helicopters and their spare parts during that civil war. It’s against this background that PLU wants the payment blocked and this is something that could place the PSST Ramathan Goobi between a rock and hard place. However, while addressing the Journalists on Tuesday, Rwabwogo dismissed the claims, saying PACEID was established on March 16, 2022, with a mandate to open export markets for Ugandan products before being placed under the Office of the President on May 25 of the same year. He said the organisation’s mandate could only be terminated by the President, who created it, and that Museveni had told him no such order had been issued. Rwabwogo said PACEID has been working on improving food safety and export compliance, negotiating transport and infrastructure arrangements and facilitating low-cost financing for companies with confirmed export orders. He said the agency had surpassed its initial target of generating $6 billion in exports, contributing to an increase in Uganda’s exports from about $4.5 billion after the COVID-19 pandemic to approximately $13 billion. He said PACEID was now entering a second phase focused on establishing aggregation, cooling and drying centers across 18 zones to address supply constraints affecting exporters. Rwabwogo warned that uncertainty surrounding government institutions and their mandates could undermine investor confidence, saying PACEID wanted to reassure domestic and international partners that its markets remained open and its commitments intact. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).