The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Dr Ramathan Ggoobi, has weathered the storm in Parliament over who should oversee the over 15 billion ordinary shares the Government of Uganda holds in the Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort.
City tycoon, Sudhir Ruperalia, runs the hotel but he recently came out clear on how many shares the Government has in the establishment whose construction climaxed with support from taxpayers’ money ahead of the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which Uganda hosted.
Parliament’s Committee on Tourism, Trade and Industry had summoned Sudhir, the Managing Director of Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, to appear today (Friday) to explain how the Government shares are run and why they have not been transferred to Uganda Development Corporation (UDC).
UDC is by law the investment arm of the Government and the entity is supposed to oversee the public interests in businesses around the country.
But, Sudhir, who asked for another day to be scheduled since he would not be in Kampala until later today, revealed in a letter addressed to the Clerk to Parliament, Adolf Mwesigye, that, the Ministry of Finance has much to tell on why the shares have not been transferred to UDC.
He attached correspondence between the Solicitor General’s office, UDC and the Ministry of Finance showing how the delayed transfer of shares has been caused by the government. Also, the businessman who has made his fortunes in the real estate and hospitality industry, informed Parliament that the company that has four shareholders has been making remittances to the Government.
It is against this background that, on Thursday evening, Mr Ggoobi, who is also the Secretary to the Treasury, wrote to the Clerk to Parliament informing him how the Finance Ministry has completed all the paperwork to have the Government shares transferred to UDC.
Dr Ggoobi reveals in a letter seen by Galaxy FM website that Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort is already listed in the UDC Act, 2016 as one of the undertakings in which the entity is required to takeover, manage, promote and facilitate the interest of the Government of Uganda effective June 1, 2016.
He stated that the Ministry of Finance, working on the guidance of the Solicitor General, is ready to complete the transfer of the shares it has been managing to UDC.
“The Ministry, represented by the Hon Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED), has since signed the transfer of shares stock forms (being holder of the shares on behalf of the Government) and returned the same to the ED/UDC for filing with Registrar of Companies and further management…” reads part of Dr Ggoobi’s letter.
The PS/ST has informed Parliament that the remaining actions before the transfer is completed are; after the filing of the transfer instrument, the Minister shall notify the Company in writing of his substitution with UDC as a shareholder; and, then the company shall enter UDC’s name in the register of members.
This website has also seen a letter in which the PS/ST was informing the Executive Director of UDC, Mr Patrick Birungi, that the Ministry had signed the transfer forms.
“The Ministry has fully executed the transfer of shares stock forms effecting the transfer of all the 15,061,209,120 shares held in Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort Ltd to UDC. This is therefore, to forward the signed forms for further management,” reads part of the letter dated October 22, 2021.
There is a total of 60,244,836,480 shares in the investment event, according to Sudhir, who also reveals that he controls 30,724,866,605 ordinary shares, his company Meera Investments Ltd has 8,434,277,107 shares, and co-director Jyotsna Ruperalia runs 6,024,483,648 shares.
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