Under fire Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) commissioner general Doris Akol, yesterday refused to appear at Uganda Media Centre to address a news conference on how she initiated and paid shs 6b to top government officials and lawyers who participated in the litigation process against Heritage oil.
A source in State House has told TrumpetNews that government convened a crisis meeting in which Akol, auditor general John Muwanga and attorney general William Byaruhanga were expected to attend. “Akol rather didn’t show up without giving a clear reason,” a source said.
The meeting resolved that a statement should be drafted explaining how government officials shared the billions as a presidential ‘handshake’ having won the oil case in London. “Akol was supposed to read that statement and respond to all queries from the press at media centre yesterday,” a source that preferred to remain unnamed said.
She later in the evening (yesterday) rang minister of information and ICT Hon Frank Tumwebaze suggesting that him (Tumwebaze) or State House should instead address the media which he objected insisting that no one in State House or President’s office shared the money. “Everyone must carry his or her own cross,” a source said.
Akol later proposed that Tumwebaze should implore President Yoweri Museveni to intervene in the matter since he authorized the ‘handshake.’
A source however said that after through consultations with top Museveni’s aides, Tumwebaze was told that Akol and group initiated the payment and approached Museveni telling him that rewarding them was in line with the law before he authorized the imbursement.
“If the president had shared the money then it would require him to clear the air but he didn’t. How do you therefore say he should speak out on the payment,” a source quoted Museveni’s aide advising Tumwebaze.
Akol again suggested that the attorney general Byaruhanga should instead interface with journalists who also feared saying, “what will I tell those camera men?”
As pressure mounted on her after receiving enormous calls from State House, Akol instructed URA spokeswoman Sara Birungi to issue a press release about the 6b payment.
“Following Uganda’s victory over the UK- based oil company Heritage that saw a combined total of USD700m brought into Government of Uganda coffers; in appreciation of the exemplary performance of the Ugandan team – Government through the office of the Attorney General recommended that the multi-disciplinary and multi sectoral team of officials that had participated in a core, non-core and support staff capacity be commended and appreciated by a Presidential Handshake totaling UGX6bn,” the release reads in part.
When contacted for a comment Birungi told TrumpetNews that she was busy and promised to call back. By the time of publishing this article she was not responding to our repeated calls.