By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: The State minister for Privatisation and Investment Evelyn Anite has finally fired Bemanya Twebaze, who was appointed by the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) as administrator for ailing Uganda Telecom Ltd.
This comes after Anite complained before parliament that the government had lost control over UTL and state officials had been denied access to some of the telecom’s facilities, accounts and vital documents, all courtesy of Bemanya’s instructions. Powerful Anite fired Bemanya in a letter to the Attorney General, William Byaruhanga, which reads partly thus; “In effect, a decision has been taken to remove Mr Bemanya Twebaze, the official receiver as the current administrator and to immediately replace him with an individual that we will indicate.
The purpose of this letter is to request you to urgently apply to court to replace the current administrator, within the context of section 172 of the Insolvency Act, 2011 and the Insolvency regulations (161(1),” Anite wrote.
She added that she would be pleased to swear an affidavit to support the application where supporting reasons would be elaborated. “I implore you to have the petition filed without any delay to ensure that the Administration of the company progresses without any issue” she stressed.
The letter is also copied to President Yoweri Museveni, Vice President Edward Ssekandi, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda and other senior government officials including Bemanya. Sources close to Anite revealed that Bemanya, who is also the Uganda Registration Services Bureau boss, is accused of alleged insubordination to superiors, acting with impunity and frustrating government efforts to obtain a credible investor to revamp UTL since he took over as administrator on April 28, 2017.
He was appointed receiver after government secured a court order to avoid liquidation and keep the company afloat. The appointment followed Government’s decision to take full control of UTL from the departing Libyan investors to protect the interest of all stake holders (UTL subscribers, shareholders, GoU, employees, staff, creditors and the public). The administrator was given a period of six months to point out measures of addressing the outstanding challenges of UTL, including financial gap of over Shs500 billion debt. UTL creditors include government (Shs195Bn), ESATD/PTA bank (Shs 32Bn), UCECPS Shs12Bn and NSSF (Shs10Bn). However, Bemanya said he was not blocking any government officials or auditors from accessing UTL but that it was not the right time as they are in the final stages of selecting an investor. He also implored that as an administrator he is only accountable to court. His firing came after Speaker Rebecca Kadaga ordered government to separate the responsibilities of the government’s Official Receiver from the direct administration of Uganda Telecom Network (UTL). The Speaker told Ministers and Members of Parliament during Tuesday’s plenary session that there is no need to establish another select committee to investigate the current accountability crisis at the telecom company and called upon the Executive implement the Parliament report of 2016. However, the regulator, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) and other creditors have since expressed concern over how Bemanya has been handling UTL’s affairs.
