By Spy Uganda
The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party together with Capt. Mike Mukula are in trouble for allegedly failing to pay Over Shs1.1Bn for hiring Mandela National Stadium, which is commonly known as Namboole.
Currently, the Management of the Stadium is battling a financial crisis with four of its tenants owing management Over Shs1.18Bn.
SpyUganda has learnt that the major debtors are Fortune Energy Limited owned by former MP Captain Mike Mukula, to which Mandela Sports Hotel was outsourced, has a debt of Shs735m, National Resistance Movement-NRM Party-Shs150.8M, Federation of Uganda Football Associations –FUFA- Shs205m and Pioneer Easy Bus Limited-91M.
The debtors were listed in documents submitted to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) –Central Government by the Stadium Managing Director Jamil Sewanyana.
The documents were demanded by PAC Chairperson Nathan Nandala for an inquiry to be carried out following a revelation in the June 2018 Auditor General’s report that the Stadium had accumulated domestic arrears of Shs875.3m.
Following allegations from different MPs about plans to privatize the Stadium, Moses Mwase, the Director Privatization Unit in the Finance Ministry, told PAC last month that the Stadium had not declared dividends since it has capitalization issues and has not been making profits.
He then said that consultations to bring a private developer on board have kicked off and that this would require funds to be availed by government for the Privatization Unit to carry out an analysis. Mwase said that they are looking at partnering with the Private Sector and not necessarily privatization since there are no plans to sell the Stadium.
According to Sewanyana’s documents before PAC, the stadium’s income for the period between 2017 to June 2018 was Shs3.56Bn and out of this, Shs3.01Bn was from internally generated revenue while Shs166m is a portion of government’s donation that was directly spent to pay for Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) taxes levied on Chinese donated sports equipment to the stadium, while Shs385m was the value of the Chinese donated items.
Sewanyana said that the company’s capacity to meet its long outstanding financial obligations has continued to be constrained because of uncollected money from the debtors including Fortune Energy Limited, NRM Party, FUFA and Pioneer Easy Bus Limited.
Fortune Energy Limited signed a contract for rent and management of Mandela Sports Hotel and the hotel management were taken over in June 2016 and rental invoicing started with effect from January 2017, since the developer was given six months grace period for mobilization and set up.
But documents before PAC indicate that out of Shs141.6m for premium, only 50 million was paid constraining the stadium in terms of cash flow as the staff who were laid off had to be paid immediately.
According to the Stadium, the hotel management debt as at June 2018 stood at Shs735m part of which Shs91.6 million is balance of premium, Shs637.2m for rent from January 2017 to June 2018 while the water and electricity bill stands at Shs6.6m.
Sewanyana also reveal that
NRM has never paid Namboole for hosting the delegates’ conference in September 2010 and owes the Stadium Shs123m. It was also revealed that in 2014 before the party’s delegates’ conference, Shs60m was paid and the balance of Shs63m
FUFA also owes the stadium Shs205m arising from various matches and other events hosted at the stadium and according to the documents before PAC, the stadium board resolved that FUFA be sued and that the court case was resolved by the Commercial Division of the High Court on June 12th 2017 by way of Consent Judgment. FUFA has since paid the first and second installments with the stadium hoping the plan to be adhered to.
FUFA also owes the Stadium Shs91m which Sewanyana said arises from a suit instituted against the company.
