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Museveni approved CHOGM car deal
Vision reporter
VICE-President Gilbert Bukenya has said President Yoweri Museveni approved the controversial CHOGM cars deal.
“I was doing my work diligently and effectively and in consultation with the President of Uganda,” he told Sunday Vision in an interview.
“There is no single decision I ever made alone. All the CHOGM decisions I made were after consultation and approval by the President of Uganda.”
Asked why he halted the tendering process and ordered for direct negotiations with the BMW agent in Uganda, he said awarding contracts was not his job.
“I was not giving contracts. That is the mandate of the accounting officer. My job was to provide a policy guideline. Procurement or awarding contracts was not my job.”
He said his policy guideline was to go for leasing rather than buying because a poor government like Uganda’s cannot afford the maintenance costs.
“My policy guideline was that we should not go for outright purchase of cars but resort to leasing of cars and the owners can take them away after the event. This would save a poor government of maintenance costs. Countries such as Malta and Nigeria also used the same method.”
Asked about the inflated price of the BMW cars, he said this was a matter for the accounting officer to explain.
“Procurement and negotiation is a responsibility for the accounting officer. But in any case, even if the price was inflated, it was cheaper to lease cars than buying and maintaining them.”
Motorcare/Europcar, the dealers for BMW in Uganda, offered a price of 4 million euro for the Government to lease 114 cars and buy another 30.
Spear Motors, acting on behalf of Mercedes Benz, had offered 6 million euros for buying all the 144 cars.
When checking the chassis numbers on the BMW website last year, the Auditor General found that all 30 BMW cars bought were two years old. Of the cars leased, only 21 were manufactured the same year while the rest were between one and three years old.
Hiring 114 of the same type of BMW cars under the AVIS Prestige programme would have cost 80,000 euros, yet Uganda paid 2.5 million euros, transport included.
The accounting officer, Charles Muganzi, last month told Parliament that procurement procedures for the CHOGM cars were flouted as a result of pressure from the Cabinet sub-committee, chaired by Bukenya.
“I could not have rebelled against a directive from the Cabinet sub-committee, chaired by the Vice-President. You have a VP with a number of ministers saying: I am directing you. What do you want me to say, go against them? If the cabinet directs, I can’t say no.”
Asked if there was pressure, Muganzi told the public accounts committee:
“Yes, there was pressure from the way we changed from international competitive bidding to restricted bidding and then to direct purchase.”
In two letters in May 2007, Bukenya halted the restricted bidding process and ordered that there be direct negotiations with the BMW dealers.
See full excerpts here
Published on: Saturday, 26th December, 2009
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