Parliament\nhas learnt that government has never financed the nearly 20-year-old Uganda Air\nCargo Corporation (UACC), whose services benefit mainly State House and Uganda\nPeople\u2019s Defence Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UACC,\nParliament was told, has been surviving on revenue generated from charter\nservices for both passengers and cargo it renders, right from purchase of the\naircraft to servicing of its operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\ncorporation, over stretched by a series of setbacks threatening its survival,\nran to Parliament seeking a supplementary budget of US$10 million to repair a\nC130, one of the grounded aircrafts and another US$5 million to acquire a\nB737-500 plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials\nfrom the corporation led by the Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Adolf\nMwesige, appeared before Parliament\u2019s Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs\non Tuesday, 12 November 2019 to make their case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nboard chairman, Captain John Emily Otekat, explained that the corporation\ncurrently runs one aircraft which has disadvantaged the corporation\u2019s business\nprospects saying most clients require a backup aircraft to enter into a\ncontract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn\naviation, you cannot win a contract when you have one aircraft. As a result,\nlast year, we missed a contract from the USA which would have earned us\nUS$11million annually,\u201d said Otekat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He\nalso told Parliament, that the corporation rents premises at Entebbe Airport\nwhere it incurs high costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This\nwithstanding, Otekat said the corporation with its one aircraft, has grown\nprofitably from Shs 15 billion in 2007 to Shs 138 billion in 2017. He\ninterested government in joining the lucrative air cargo business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nline with their investment plan, he also requested government to provide US$88\nmillion for construction of an aircraft hangar, so that all planes are serviced\nwithin the country as opposed to Nairobi as is currently the practice. If\nUganda is able to service aircrafts, Otekat said, it would earn about US$160\nmillion annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\ncommittee, impressed by the corporation\u2019s operations wondered why the ministry\nhad never addressed the matter during the budget process. \u201cIt beats my\nunderstanding that government has not been able to borrow for its own where we\ncan even generate income but borrows for projects we even get to pay for,\u201d said\nDoreen Amule, the committee chairperson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister\nMwesige said he had untiringly approached the finance ministry over the\ncorporation\u2019s funding needs but was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
State Minister for Veteran Affairs, Bright Rwamirama, said they were grappling with competing priorities, hence the failure to allocate funds to UACC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe, for instance, do not have a referral hospital and you have been asking us why we take the army to Nakasero Hospital – but even the money we have is not enough to complete construction of the hospital,\u201d said Rwamirama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee unpleased with ministry\u2019s laxity over the operation of corporation, resolved to engage the finance ministry before escalating it to the plenary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parliamentary News<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Parliament has learnt that government has never financed the nearly 20-year-old Uganda Air Cargo Corporation (UACC), whose services benefit mainly State House and Uganda People\u2019s Defence Forces. UACC, Parliament was told, has been surviving on revenue generated from charter services for both passengers and cargo it renders, right from purchase of the aircraft to servicing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":12122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-12121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\n