Vincent Bagiire, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign AffairsBy Prisca WanyenyaThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs has admitted that the failure by Uganda to pay subscription fees in various international organisation has caused Uganda diplomatic embarrassment where dignitaries aren’t allowed to press microphones to speak during meetings due to accumulated arrears, that have since risen to UGX90.2Bn.The revelation was made by Vincent Bagiire, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the familiarisation meeting held with Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, held on 3rd August 2026.Bagiire noted, “The accumulated arrears, re actually a double-edged sword. On the one hand, we are trying to promote the good image of the country, on the other hand, we are not paying subscription. We have had embarrassing situations we have been put on notice that we are going to attend the African Union, but the microphone of the head of delegation shall not turn red. In other words, they won’t be able to speak. And it puts us in a very, very unpalatable scenario.”The development comes at the time when the Auditor General, Edward Akol in his December 2025 report to Parliament raised concerns about the failure by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Budget for International Subscriptions and other domestic arrears, noting that in the 2024/25 budget for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there was no budget provision for international subscriptions, despite outstanding obligations of UGX.68.95Bn for FY 2023/2024.The Auditor General noted, “Consequently, the country was flagged for non‑compliance by the African Union (letter dated 12th July 2024), exposing the country to potential sanctions. In addition, there was no provision for settlement of other domestic arrears amounting to UGX.979.6Mn.”According to the Auditor General, a detailed review of International Contributions indicated that arrears to international organisations stood at USD.22.63Mn (UGX.80.38Bn) and GBP 31,575 (UGX.155.8Mn).Among the organisations that Uganda owes subscription fees include; World Food Programme (USD.3.93Mn): This is an outstanding rental subsidy obligation for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) county office from 2002 to 2012. IGAD (USD.11.9Mn): Represents the largest share of total arrears (52%). No payments were made in FY 2024/25, despite new assessments totalling USD.2.82Mn. Uganda also owes UN Secretariat, OIC, ICGLR: arrears have increased due to non-payment during the financial year.To the African Union (AU), Uganda made Partial payment of USD.2.73Mn, leaving a residual balance of USD.2.73Mn, with the Auditor General warning that the failure to budget for both international subscriptions and domestic arrears exposes Uganda to loss of membership privileges, voting rights, and access to technical assistance in international organisations, while simultaneously creating risks of litigation, budgetary diversions, and reputational damage at regional and global levels.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also revealed that Uganda is losing investors to other nations in East Africa because of Uganda’s laxity towards imposing retaliatory tariff barriers imposed by other members in the East African Community, as this reluctancy makes investors in Uganda question Uganda’s efforts towards protecting their businesses.“We are beginning to lose companies or industries in Uganda that are moving to Tanzania and or Kenya because Uganda does not reciprocate, if they put non-tariff barriers on our products, Uganda will never reciprocate and they know it. Uganda will continue to allow the products of the other country to come into our country. So, the investors are like, since Uganda doesn’t reciprocate, Americans will be in Tanzania and supply in Uganda. Since we are too much into the East African community and we are not really retaliating,” noted Bagiire.He further revealed that recently, Tanzania cast doubts about Uganda’s capabilities to produce the sugar it was exporting to Tanzania, and the Tanzanian Government sent a team of experts to come to Uganda to verify if Uganda was indeed producing the sugar it was selling in Tanzania.Bagiire narrated, “We have had challenges with sugar with our colleagues in Tanzania. Last week or the other week, the team from Tanzania was in Uganda to visit all the sugar factories to confirm that actually Uganda does manufacture sugar because they thought we import and then a package here and then send it to them. So they came here and we took them across all the sugar manufacturing companies to ensure that they appreciate that actually the sugar is from Uganda, it is not imported and reported.”The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also decried the weak inter-governmental agency coordination within Uganda noting that there have been cases where investors have been convinced to come invest in Uganda through the various Missions, and when such investors are handed over to various Ministries and other government agencies, Uganda ends up losing these investors due to lengthy bureaucratic processes.Bagiire noted, “An investor comes, he wants to add value to a certain agricultural product, we pass them to the Ministry of Agriculture, and then there’s no response for weeks, for months, and at times even for a year, and we miss those opportunities. The unfortunate thing is those opportunities now go to the next country where they are more responsive. So weak inter-agency coordination is a big challenge.”Parliament was also informed of the need by Government to harmonise the regulation of activities of externalisation of labour between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Geneder, Labour and Social Development, after Bagiire noted that although these companies that transport Ugandans are registered by the Ministry of Gender, when lives of Ugandans are under threat abroad, it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to shoulder the burden of rescuing them yet there is no budget provision for such activities.“On a weekly basis, we receive communication from colleagues in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, about Ugandans in distress who have run away from the places where they had been taken to work, some of them are mentally ill and require attention. Unfortunately, the externalisation is in the scope of the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, who authorise and or register the companies that do labour externalisation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs suffers with the challenges, but we don’t have much in terms of solutions on how to stop the carnage of sending Ugandans out for labour externalisation without adequate protection,” said Bagiire.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also revealed that it is grappling with increased pressure for consular services especially in war zones like Iran, yet the Tehran Embassy was being used to serve neighbouring nations like Iraq.Bagiire noted, “Labour externalisation is driving so many cases of distress of Ugandans. here are Ugandans that are in prison and they’re in prisons in places where we don’t have an embassy. In places like Iraq, you have a number of Ugandans who are in prison there, our mission that handles them is Iran. As you know, there is a war in Iran and therefore our diplomats are here in Uganda, so it becomes a bit hard to give them the consular services that we ought to. So, we have operational challenges there.”The post Gov’t Owes UGX90.2 Billion in Unpaid Fees to International Organizations appeared first on Business Focus.