European Union Graders Repaired Park Roads, Says Alam

John Njoroge

1 June 2011

Kampala — Tractors and graders branded European Union (EU) and not PAMSU Project worked on several roads in and around the Murchison Falls National Park, Mr Zahid Alam, a PAMSU Commission of Inquiry witness said yesterday.

The commission is investigating how Shs85.5 billion ($38 million) in grant and loan money from the World Bank was spent by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in a project, the Protected Areas Management for Sustainable Use (PAMSU), between 2002 and 2008. As part of the Project, UWA was required to purchase new road construction equipment for all national parks and reserves.

No equipment bought

Investigations so far indicate that no construction equipment was bought by the wildlife body between 2002 and 2009. Shs4.6 billion ($2million) was released by the Finance Ministry to UWA for these purchases but none was made. In one instance, Shs20 million is said to have been used to repair an old grader. All financial requisitions were made by different Tourism Ministry accounting officers between 2002 and 2008.

Uganda set aside Shs17.1 billion in counterpart funding for the project, but only released Shs15.4 billion. The country is expected to repay Shs71.4 billion ($30 million) with interest to the World Bank.

Mr Alam is one of the directors of the ALAM Group. Commission records indicate he also established the first tourist lodge in Murchison Falls National Park in 1993, and is the current proprietor of, among others, the Geo-Lodge in Mabira Forest. He represented private tour operators in the UWA board of trustees between 1996 and 2001.

Having been part of the team that extensively discussed the PAMSU project riht from the beginning, Mr Alam had hoped that on implementation, the project would have served Uganda’s wildlife industry even better.

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