Germany says no to cutting aid
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Germany-says-no-to-cutting-aid/-/688334/1635182/-/odhti2/-/index.html
By John Njoroge
Posted
Monday, December 3
2012 at
02:00
Kampala
German envoy to Uganda, Ambassador Klaus Dieter
Düxmann, has refuted foreign media reports that the country will cut
development assistance to Uganda over corruption.
“It is not true. We are maintaining development
assistance to Uganda,” Mr Düxmann said yesterday. “The embassy will
give further communication in this respect in the coming days.”
His comments followed a report at the weekend by
Reuter’s news agency that Germany had suspended aid to Uganda in protest
over corruption in the Office of the Prime Minister and alleged
military support for rebels in DR Congo.
Scandals and trust
“Even though no German funds are affected (by the scandal), I have ordered that Germany, in unison with other aid donors, withhold payment of budget aid,” German International Development Minister Dirk Niebel was quoted on Friday.
“Even though no German funds are affected (by the scandal), I have ordered that Germany, in unison with other aid donors, withhold payment of budget aid,” German International Development Minister Dirk Niebel was quoted on Friday.
“We thereby send a clear message ... (Aid) is an
expression of our highest trust in responsible governance by our
cooperation partners.”
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Okello
Oryem yesterday expressed gratitude to Germany for acknowledging
givernment’s efforts to “cleaning up the mess” at the Office of the
Prime Minister.
“As government, we are grateful that Germany
recognises that we are doing all we can to clean up the mess at OPM,” Mr
Oryem said. “We are grateful Germany respects our culture, traditions
and beliefs as regards homosexuality and appreciate their recognition of
Uganda’s response to the UN report on Congo,” Mr Oryem added.
By DEAR JEANNE & JOHN NJOROGE
KAMPALA
Government will have to tighten its financial belt significantly after donors announced deeper and longer aid cuts yesterday in response to massive public corruption. The European Union ambassador to Uganda announced yesterday that the EU, United Kingdom, the World Bank, Austria and other countries had suspended up to $300 million promised in budget support each year, up to 2013.
Other countries that have cut budget support include Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Sweden. “Ugandan citizens are going to lose close to $300 million in budget support from all the eight development partners,” Ambassador Roberto Ridolfi said yesterday. “Though the suspension is not going to affect running programmes, it will impact highly on the lives of the citizens.”
The Shs750 billion in aid cuts is about as much as government planned to spend on agriculture, water and environment in the current financial year. Sweden and Ireland had earlier suspended their project support and thus the new agreement suspends all their funds to Uganda while Norway withdrew all its support in 2011.
Speaking at an anti-corruption convention in Kampala, Ambassador Ridolfi said yesterday that although corruption in Uganda was nothing new, the extent of the problem discovered in the Office of the Prime Minister revealed a disappointing absence of financial controls. “How can I now go back to Europe and ask for aid for Uganda?” Mr Ridolfi asked. “The recent corruption scandals are a breach of trust between the country and its development partners.”
This newspaper has learnt that more than eight development partners met last week and agreed in their assessment that government lacks the ability to fight public corruption. It informed the decision to suspend aid until 2013. “I believe this will give government enough time to lay down frameworks to control financial resources. It is upon government to now move to re-allocate the budget without making the situation worse for the common man,” Mr Ridolfi said.
In October, Sweden and Ireland suspended project support aid to Uganda over alleged corruption in the OPM and sent a team to investigate the matter. The move followed a draft report by Auditor General John Muwanga, which found that at least Shs50 billion in aid from Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark had been misused.
The Auditor General’s inquiry was prompted by investigations by this newspaper, which broke the story of the graft in the OPM. The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament is currently investigating the matter based on the findings in the Auditor General’s report. A separate investigation by the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate of police is also underway.
Meanwhile, a day after Germany’s Envoy to Uganda Ambassador Klaus Dieter Düxmann said his country had not suspended Aid to Uganda, his embassy yesterday sent communication to the contrary, officially announcing the suspension of three million Euros in budget support to Uganda.
Between 2010 and 2013, Germany had committed 120 million Euros to Uganda, 24 million Euros of which had been allocated to budget support.
KAMPALA
|
(Reuters) - The European Union (EU) has become the latest donor to suspend aid to Uganda alleging the embezzlement of $13 million in aid funds by officials in the Prime Minister's office.
The EU joins Britain, Germany, Ireland, Denmark and Norway which have already frozen funds to the east African nation.
Uganda's government has said it is determined to punish all the officials involved in the theft of money meant to help fund the recovery of northern Uganda, ravaged by the Lord's Resistance Army's two-decade insurgency.
Aid funds up to a quarter of the national budget.
The withholding of funds has also hurt the Ugandan economy through the shilling currency which has lost close to 4 percent of its value against the dollar, raising import costs, since Ireland first cut its aid in late October.
Central bank Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile told a news conference on Tuesday: "If all donors being reported to have cut their aid do cut their aid, we think that this will reduce the potential (economic) growth rate by about 0.7 percent."
Donors say a culture of impunity thrives at the heart of government for cronies of Uganda's long-serving President Yoweri Museveri.
"The recent corruption scandals and misappropriation of funds in the government of Uganda are a breach of trust," Roberto Ridolfi, the EU's ambassador to Uganda, told civil society groups in Kampala late on Monday.
EU officials in the Ugandan capital declined to say how much aid the bloc was withholding. Ridolfi said it would not pay out funds destined for budgetary support over the next six months until Uganda took steps towards combating graft.
External financing was expected to account for roughly a quarter of Uganda's 11.2 trillion shillings ($4.2 billion)budgetary spend this fiscal year (July-June), the 2012-2013 budget showed.
Cuts to budgetary assistance could hurt public investments in health and education.
Ridolfi said the EU would initially suspend aid for six months, giving the Ugandan government time to return the stolen funds to donors, create a more robust public finance system and prosecute officials guilty of theft.
"For the EU in practical terms this means that funds earmarked as EU budget support to the Ugandan fiscal year 2012-13 will not be paid until satisfactory progress has been confirmed on the points above," Ridolfi said in his speech.
Uganda's leading Daily Monitor newspaper on Tuesday quoted Ridolfi warning that "Ugandan citizens are going to lose close to $300 million in budget support" from eight development partners.
At least 12 officials have been suspended since the country's attorney general released a report in October revealing the funds were missing.
($1 = 2680.0000 Ugandan shillings)
(Reporting By Elias Biryabarema; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Richard Lough/Ruth Pitchford)
Donors cut all direct aid to government until 2013
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Donors--cut--all-direct-aid--government--until-2015/-/688334/1635792/-/tc4u1pz/-/index.html
By DEAR JEANNE & JOHN NJOROGE
Posted Tuesday, December 4 2012 at 02:00
In Summary
The European Union, United
Kingdom, the World Bank, Austria and other countries have
suspended up to $300 million promised in budget support each year, up to 2013.KAMPALA
Government will have to tighten its financial belt significantly after donors announced deeper and longer aid cuts yesterday in response to massive public corruption. The European Union ambassador to Uganda announced yesterday that the EU, United Kingdom, the World Bank, Austria and other countries had suspended up to $300 million promised in budget support each year, up to 2013.
Other countries that have cut budget support include Belgium, Germany, Ireland and Sweden. “Ugandan citizens are going to lose close to $300 million in budget support from all the eight development partners,” Ambassador Roberto Ridolfi said yesterday. “Though the suspension is not going to affect running programmes, it will impact highly on the lives of the citizens.”
The Shs750 billion in aid cuts is about as much as government planned to spend on agriculture, water and environment in the current financial year. Sweden and Ireland had earlier suspended their project support and thus the new agreement suspends all their funds to Uganda while Norway withdrew all its support in 2011.
Speaking at an anti-corruption convention in Kampala, Ambassador Ridolfi said yesterday that although corruption in Uganda was nothing new, the extent of the problem discovered in the Office of the Prime Minister revealed a disappointing absence of financial controls. “How can I now go back to Europe and ask for aid for Uganda?” Mr Ridolfi asked. “The recent corruption scandals are a breach of trust between the country and its development partners.”
This newspaper has learnt that more than eight development partners met last week and agreed in their assessment that government lacks the ability to fight public corruption. It informed the decision to suspend aid until 2013. “I believe this will give government enough time to lay down frameworks to control financial resources. It is upon government to now move to re-allocate the budget without making the situation worse for the common man,” Mr Ridolfi said.
In October, Sweden and Ireland suspended project support aid to Uganda over alleged corruption in the OPM and sent a team to investigate the matter. The move followed a draft report by Auditor General John Muwanga, which found that at least Shs50 billion in aid from Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark had been misused.
The Auditor General’s inquiry was prompted by investigations by this newspaper, which broke the story of the graft in the OPM. The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament is currently investigating the matter based on the findings in the Auditor General’s report. A separate investigation by the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate of police is also underway.
Meanwhile, a day after Germany’s Envoy to Uganda Ambassador Klaus Dieter Düxmann said his country had not suspended Aid to Uganda, his embassy yesterday sent communication to the contrary, officially announcing the suspension of three million Euros in budget support to Uganda.
Between 2010 and 2013, Germany had committed 120 million Euros to Uganda, 24 million Euros of which had been allocated to budget support.
EU joins national donors in freezing aid to Uganda over graft
(Reuters) - The European Union (EU) has become the latest donor to suspend aid to Uganda alleging the embezzlement of $13 million in aid funds by officials in the Prime Minister's office.
The EU joins Britain, Germany, Ireland, Denmark and Norway which have already frozen funds to the east African nation.
Uganda's government has said it is determined to punish all the officials involved in the theft of money meant to help fund the recovery of northern Uganda, ravaged by the Lord's Resistance Army's two-decade insurgency.
Aid funds up to a quarter of the national budget.
The withholding of funds has also hurt the Ugandan economy through the shilling currency which has lost close to 4 percent of its value against the dollar, raising import costs, since Ireland first cut its aid in late October.
Central bank Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile told a news conference on Tuesday: "If all donors being reported to have cut their aid do cut their aid, we think that this will reduce the potential (economic) growth rate by about 0.7 percent."
Donors say a culture of impunity thrives at the heart of government for cronies of Uganda's long-serving President Yoweri Museveri.
"The recent corruption scandals and misappropriation of funds in the government of Uganda are a breach of trust," Roberto Ridolfi, the EU's ambassador to Uganda, told civil society groups in Kampala late on Monday.
EU officials in the Ugandan capital declined to say how much aid the bloc was withholding. Ridolfi said it would not pay out funds destined for budgetary support over the next six months until Uganda took steps towards combating graft.
External financing was expected to account for roughly a quarter of Uganda's 11.2 trillion shillings ($4.2 billion)budgetary spend this fiscal year (July-June), the 2012-2013 budget showed.
Cuts to budgetary assistance could hurt public investments in health and education.
Ridolfi said the EU would initially suspend aid for six months, giving the Ugandan government time to return the stolen funds to donors, create a more robust public finance system and prosecute officials guilty of theft.
"For the EU in practical terms this means that funds earmarked as EU budget support to the Ugandan fiscal year 2012-13 will not be paid until satisfactory progress has been confirmed on the points above," Ridolfi said in his speech.
Uganda's leading Daily Monitor newspaper on Tuesday quoted Ridolfi warning that "Ugandan citizens are going to lose close to $300 million in budget support" from eight development partners.
At least 12 officials have been suspended since the country's attorney general released a report in October revealing the funds were missing.
($1 = 2680.0000 Ugandan shillings)
(Reporting By Elias Biryabarema; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Richard Lough/Ruth Pitchford)
