By Michael Mubangizi
WEEKLY OBSERVER
The Ugandan taxpayer has been made to pay at least Shs 2 billion to a US firm for services that can be performed by the country's embassies abroad.
The services include editing and drafting letters and speeches for senior government officials, including President Museveni and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sam Kutesa.
The government has since 2003 splashed an annual retainer of $300,000 (Shs 540 million) on the Washington DC-based Whitaker Group, which is owned by the US former Assistant Trade Representative for Africa, Rosa Whitaker. The money is paid in four equal installments.
For the four years that the contract has been in place, Whitaker's retainer alone adds up to $1.2m. At the current exchange rate of Shs 1,800 per dollar, this amounts to Shs 2.16bn. On top of the retainer, there are other invoices demanding payment for travel, per diem and other costs incurred by the executives of the Group while visiting Uganda.
For instance, The Weekly Observer has seen a copy of an invoice of $8,511 (Shs 15 million) paid to the group for preparing a Ugandan delegation that attended the 'All Things Organic Trade' in Chicago, USA, in May 2004.
The Whitaker Group signed a memorandum with the Uganda Government in 2003 for trade facilitation, marketing, media and advocacy, among other services. The Group was formed in 2003, which makes Uganda one of the very first countries to enlist its services. This agreement has since been renewed annually. Invoices demanding money for services rendered by the Group are sent directly to ministers in charge of finance.
Some documents The Weekly Observer has seen are addressed to former Finance Minister, Gerald Sendaula, current minister, Dr. Ezra Suruma, and a former minister of state in the ministry, Mwesigwa Rukutana. There are also correspondences with Suzan Muhwezi, a presidential advisor on the American Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Drafting letters
Services rendered by Whitaker include organising President Museveni's visit to the United States and securing an opportunity for him to address 600 members of US media and opinion leaders.
During the visit, Whitaker says the President met officials like Connie Newman, the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Ambassador Jendayi Frazer, and Dr. Cindy Courville, Senior Director of African Affairs at the White House.
The Group also explains how it facilitated President Museveni's participation in the Kaiser Foundation's film interview on the global HIV/AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was recognised for his work on HIV/ AIDS on June 14, 2004.
Whitaker further says that they facilitated a telephone interview for president Museveni with Janine Amber of Essence magazine, which the group maintains is read by millions of readers. Essence is a glossy magazine targeting the African American woman.
Also billed on the Ugandan taxpayer is drafting President Museveni's letter to Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, by Whitaker. This draft letter, containing an entire paragraph praising Whitaker as being a respected group all over the world, is inviting Chinese textile and apparel companies to Uganda.
In addition, Whitaker seeks payment for placing President Museveni's article about peace talks with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and conditions in northern Uganda on the AllAfrica.com website, which the
group claims is one of the world's largest content sites serving more than 12 million monthly and accessible to more than 14,000 other web sites.
Dated September 19, 2006, the article which we have seen indicates that the President featured as a Guest Writer. However, our understanding of AllAfrica.com operations is that it publishes on its website stories from newspapers affiliated to it, which in Uganda's case includes New Vision and Daily Monitor. That means publishing an article in New Vision would have been enough to get it onto the website without incurring any extra cost.
The Whitaker Group also demand payment for editing Foreign Affairs minister Sam Kutesa's letter to the editor of Foreign Policy magazine in response to former senior UN official, Olara Otunu's article –' The Secret Genocide'. The edited version of the letter, Whitaker's memo says, was sent to Kutesa for approval before submission for publication. Whitaker also arranged for Kutesa to appear at the National Press Club newsmaker event in September [2006]. However, the group says that Kutesa did not attend "due to obligations in New York".
Doing ministers' work
Other bills include researching about US campaign finance laws for Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, who was then National Political Commissar and Minister without Portfolio. Kiyonga is currently Minister of Defence.
The Whitaker Group also briefed the then Minister of Trade, Janat Mukwaya and several ministers of state, on developing a textile, apparel policy.
In addition, the group wrote a speech for Uganda's Ambassador to the United States, Perezi Kamunanwire, to deliver at the GuluWalk for Peace in Washington DC.
Whitaker also says that they drafted and disseminated editions of 'Uganda Update', a quarterly newsletter it established to highlight Uganda's progress on the economic, finance and rule of law fronts.
AGOA advice
The correspondences seen by The Weekly Observer also reveal Whitaker's take on the operations of the embattled AGOA project in Uganda. In her August 10, 2006 letter titled 'Uganda's Tri Star and Garment
Dilemma' to President Museveni, Whitaker asks the President to restructure the operations of Tri Star.
She argues that Tri Star Uganda is losing opportunities with US buyers because of the perception that it is part of Tri Star Sri-Lanka, which has legal problems and an exceptionally bad reputation globally.
She proposed that Tri-Star be renamed 'Renaissance Apparel and Textiles'. Noting that the Tri Star management didn't invest "any of its money in the enterprise," Whitaker advises the government to share risks with the company, because "Tri Star will not have demonstrated a commitment to the ventures success, as it has nothing of substance at stake".
Whitaker also recommends that government becomes the majority shareholder in Tri Star before eventually privatising it. In so doing, she argues, the current owners of the Tri Star business would become minority shareholders responsible for a portion of the debt incurred. The Bugolobi-based facility collapsed under the weight of mismanagement early this year. To resuscitate it, the government recently brought in Libyan investors.
Whitaker's letter clearly shows that her Group had reservations about Tri Star Managing Director, Velupillai Kananathan's leadership abilities right from the start. She advised in one of her letters to the President that government appoints qualified Ugandans and others to serve on the Board of Directors.
"We recommend that the Board of Directors immediately form a search committee to look for a globally competitive Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer," the Group said.
Media Centre
Rosa Whitaker, a close friend of the Kampala regime, attended the retreat of NRM MPs last month and delivered a joint presentation with President Museveni on trade opportunities. Besides trade issues, her Group advises the NRM government on media matters.
The Weekly Observer has seen a July 30, 2006 letter written by Jackson Cox, Whitaker's Director of Government Affairs, to then Media Centre boss, Robert Kabushenga, asking him to make preparations for the
Whitaker Group's visit to Uganda.
According to the letter, Deborah Mathis, the Group's Vice President for Communication and Media Affairs, was to provide training to the Media Centre, among other things. The Weekly Observer has seen a copy
of the report Whitaker submitted after the visit.
Titled 'Best practices in Media and Communication', the August 2006 booklet contains notes on issues like "the role of the Press Officer, writing a news release, dos and don'ts for dealing with the media, media relations and crisis media management".
Commenting on the President's news conference that she attended during her visit, Deborah Mathis suggests some changes. "His Excellency should not enter the news conference until after equipment is set up and reporters are ready to roll".
She also suggested the availability of a portable platform or riser for television cameras in the conference site, so that cameras do not block the view of the print press or others seated in the room. Mathis advised the Media Centre to develop a group of what it called 'Heavy hitters'-academics, popular civic activists, experts in various areas - who can be called upon to write opinion pieces to support government positions on matters at hand.
Duplication?
An analysis of The Whitaker Group's work shows that most of it falls under the ambit of some public office that has a budget for it. For instance, the President and his ministers have personal assistants and [press] secretaries to write their letters.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is charged with facilitating visits by Ugandan officials abroad. Also, a Media Centre appraisal could easily have been done more cheaply by local consultancies, private journalists or journalism professors.
Aswa County MP and Shadow Minister of Foreign Affairs, Reagan Okumu, raised similar concerns recently, criticising government for spending so much on foreign firms to improve Uganda's image abroad.
"Reliance on propaganda as a means of diplomacy is no longer fashionable after the cold war, which the NRM is heavily relying on through paying up agents abroad to improve our image at extremely very
high costs instead of improving the Ministry [of Foreign Affairs] performance," Okumu told the press during a news conference.
This is not the first time government is spending billions on image building. The Weekly Observer reported two years ago that a UK based publicist firm, Hill and Knowlton, had been hired to polish President Museveni's image abroad. (See: Shs 1.2 bn to polish Museveni, May 19-25, 2005).
We reported then that the firm had been engaged to counteract negative publicity arising from attempts to amend the Constitution to secure a third term for President Museveni. Countries like Ireland and Britain
had just cut off aid to Uganda to protest lack of a level playing field for Ugandan political groups.
According to information on its website www.thewhitakergroup.us, Whitaker also offers services to countries like Ghana, Lesotho, Togo, Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire.
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