An investigation by this website to establish the real directors Uganda Vinci Coffee Company (UVCC) indicates the records are missing.
The investigation was conducted after it emerged that Enrica Pinetti who was fronted by Ministry of Finance as the owner of the company which sought monopoly of the country’s chief export signed a multibillion ($80m) contract as a witness.
A leaked February 2022 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) shows that the deal was signed by Finance Minister Matia Kasaija on behalf of government, in the presence of Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary of the Finance Ministry.
The contractors part was signed once by a witness- Pinetti, brewing more anger among government officials and members of the public on who truly owns this firm.
This website’s attempt to search details of the company from the Registrar of Companies found out Vinci Coffee has been reflagged, meaning no one can access its details apart from a few authorized staff.
But a covert investigation reveals that Vinci Coffee is placed under a multiple business ventures with unclear shareholders.
However, according to the contested contract, Vinci Coffee is a limited liability company that is fully registered with its office at Plot 2, Summit View , Kololo in Kampala.
Experts we reached out to said that by placing a company under several other entities, the shareholders are usually avoiding to be directly tagged into the dubious ventures undertaken by their firms.
“It is one way of playing smart by these dubious individuals,” said a government official who wished not to be quoted.
No single individual at the office of the Registrar of Companies was willing to discuss any matter related to Pinetti and Vinci Coffee.
Pinetti, a separate source in Ministry of Finance said has been working closely with government since the bush war days.
“She acted as a link between the NRA rebels and Libyan leader then and sourced funding and weapons. Maybe this is a way of repaying her,” a source said.
She is the same individual who was awarded deal to build state of art 1.2 trillion UGX in Lubowa. But until now, there is no single spoon of sand at the construction site after government released shs 140 billion and plans to release more 326 for the ‘white elephant’.
In 2017 while Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) conducted due diligence on Pinetti, records still went missing.
Parliament of Uganda has since summoned Pinetti and her collaborators, Finance Minister and the Secretary to the Treasurer to expound on how the contested coffee agreement was signed.
The minister of Agriculture Frank Tumwebaze was sidelined in the agreement.
What has brought up the controversy is the MoU indicates that UVCC was granted exclusivity to buy all Uganda’s coffee even before the government can look at other players.
Details of the ‘bad’ Agreement
It states that: “GoU undertakes that it will take all reasonable measures to give priority of supply of coffee to the Company before registering any contract or acknowledging any arrangement for the export of Coffee beans…”
The deal with UVCC will be valid until 2032, if the operations are to kick off this year (2022).
In all its operation timeline, UVCC will not have to pay any tax according to the agreement.
Article 4.1.3: “for avoidance of any doubt, the company shall be exempt from corporate income tax for a period of ten (10) years; b enjoy duty-free importation of all Plant and machinery, motor vehicles, construction materials and equipment, packaging materials and any other materials for use of this project under the East African Community Common External Tariff (EAC-CET)”.
Article 4.1.4 : “If there is any change in law or change in tax which substantially alters the economic benefits accruing, the company may within one year from commencement of the deed (February 10) write to government in order to maintain the economic benefits of UVCC.”