Audit Atiak Sugar before more investment, LOP tells Gov’t

The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament has tasked the government to conduct a thorough audit of the operations of Atiak Sugar Factory in Amuru District, in which the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) has invested over UGX 500 billion.

Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi has also called for accountability of Shs553.71 billion invested in the factory by the government through UDC, before more resources are allocated.

According to the LoP, the factory is non-operational without any sugar production, despite government’s intervention between financial years 2017/2018 and 2022/2023, where the government purchased and acquired equity shares from the factory.

“Despite the factory being non-operational for a couple of years, it spends 200 litres of diesel on a daily basis, running turbines to prevent machines from rusting and malfunctioning. This regular expenditure is disturbing given that there is no production going on,” said Ssenyonyi.

This was one of the concerns contained in a report on an oversight visit by opposition Members of Parliament to Atiak Sugar Factory, presented by the LOP during a plenary sitting held on Wednesday, 23 October 2024.

Ssenyonyi further noted that there is limited or no presence of UDC in the operations of the factory, whereas it is meant to oversee the project on behalf of the government.

According to the report, the factory management abandoned the agreed model of planting 60,000 acres of sugarcane through farmer cooperatives and resorted to planting 25,000 acres of sugarcane on land owned by the factory.

“Management told us that the factory’s sugarcane plantation totaling 7,900 acres had been burnt down in December 2020, which affected the operations. However, the cause of the fire was unclear,” Ssenyonyi said.

He urged the government to fast-track the conversion of its preferential shares into ordinary shares so as to increase its negotiating and voting powers, as well as strong decision making in the company.

To ensure improved oversight and management of the factory’s operations, Ssenyonyi also urged UDC to ensure efficient management and transparency of the resources invested by the government.

“We need the government to update Parliament on its stake in this project, the plans to see that the UGX553.71 billion injected by the tax payer does not go to waste and how Northern Uganda and Uganda at large can rip the promised benefits from this project,” he added.

Speaker Anita Among, gave the Minister for Finance three weeks within which to present a statement on matters arising from the LOP’s report.