The Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), under the leadership of Robert Mukiza, in collaboration with Louis Arinaitwe, the Country Director for Trade at the British High Commission (BHC), has become embroiled in a significant scandal.

At the heart of this controversy is the dubious selection of PM Excellence, a little-known UK-based company with questionable financial standing, as the Owner’s Engineer for the Namanve Industrial Park project.

Despite having a reported share value of £100, net assets averaging £5,000, and capital reserves capped at £15,000, this inexperienced firm was awarded a staggering $4.5 million contract to oversee one of Uganda’s most critical industrial developments.

This decision, made in September 2023, raises serious questions about the integrity of UIA’s procurement process. How could such an undercapitalized firm with no proven track record secure such a high-value contract? Even more troubling is that PM Excellence has been tasked with certifying payments worth $5–10 million per certificate on a project valued at £250 million. The circumstances of this contract award suggest gross incompetence, collusion, or outright corruption.

The $4.5 million contract, spanning nine months, was expected to deliver high-quality oversight from UK-trained experts in engineering and project management. However, PM Excellence has failed to deploy any personnel with the required expertise. Despite invoices averaging $500,000 per month (UGX 1.8 billion), there is no evidence of the sophisticated oversight that such expenditures would justify. Comparisons with similar projects under Uganda’s National Roads Authority (UNRA), Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), and other ministries reveal astronomically inflated costs, pointing to significant abuse of process.
To compound matters, UIA failed to budget for the payments, leaving PM Excellence unpaid for the entire contract duration. Rather than resolving this glaring oversight, UIA extended the firm’s contract at no cost from June to December 2024, effectively having the company work “for free.” As the contract extension nears its end, UIA is now proposing another UGX 14 billion ($3.8 million) extension for eight additional months, further fueling suspicions of backroom deals and questionable motives.

PM Excellence’s questionable appointment has created a conflict of interest that undermines its objectivity in certifying contractor payments. Without receiving payments for its initial contract, the firm is beholden to UIA management, which controls its extensions and approvals. Simultaneously, PM Excellence appears to serve the interests of the contractor, certifying payments without the necessary scrutiny, ensuring smooth approvals for questionable claims.

The result has been catastrophic for project integrity. Payments to the project contractor have been riddled with:

• Deviations from contractual provisions.
• Outdated cost indices.
• Inconsistent invoicing periods.
• Discrepancies in payment certificates.

These irregularities reveal that PM Excellence lacks the capacity to oversee a project of this magnitude, turning its role into a facade for unchecked mismanagement.

The scandal deepens when considering the termination of the original Owner’s Engineer consortium, a team selected through a transparent process. This consortium, which included reputable UK firms Turner & Townsend and Roughton International, partnered with respected Ugandan firms Joadah Associates and Basic Group, brought unparalleled expertise to the Namanve project. However, UIA claimed a Power of Attorney issue as the reason for their dismissal—a minor administrative hiccup that could have been resolved. Insiders reveal that the true reason was UIA’s failure to pay the consortium’s invoices, which now amount to over $2.5 million, with interest continuing to accrue.

This termination paved the way for PM Excellence, an inexperienced and financially weak firm, to take over. The facts suggest a calculated move to replace credible oversight with a pliable entity that could be manipulated to rubber-stamp questionable payments and decisions.

The evidence points to a scheme orchestrated to siphon taxpayer money. PM Excellence was not selected for its expertise but rather as a convenient tool to facilitate backdoor dealings. UIA’s management, in collaboration with influential actors like Louis Arinaitwe of BHC and others, appears to have prioritized personal interests over public accountability.

The consequences of these actions are clear: public funds are being funneled into entities that add no value, while the Namanve project suffers from poor supervision and mounting delays. Meanwhile, Thursday’s meeting on November 21, 2024, revealed a startling development—UIA plans to defy the President’s directive to withhold payments for the contractor’s unsubstantiated Variation of Price (VoP) claims. This decision reportedly has the backing of PM Excellence, Robert Mukiza, and other senior officials, including Juvenal Muhumuza from the Ministry of Finance.

The Namanve Industrial Park was envisioned as a symbol of Uganda’s industrial progress. Instead, it has become a cautionary tale of corruption, incompetence, and exploitation. The scandal surrounding PM Excellence threatens to derail the project, jeopardize investor confidence, and drain millions from taxpayer coffers.

Ugandans deserve answers. Why was PM Excellence selected despite its glaring lack of qualifications? Why was the initial consortium terminated under dubious circumstances? Who benefits from this mismanagement?

The Ministry of Finance, Parliament, and anti-corruption bodies must urgently investigate the role of UIA, the British High Commission, and other implicated parties in this scandal. The public deserves leadership that prioritizes transparency, accountability, and the responsible use of resources, not one that exploits public projects for personal gain.

This scandal is a wake-up call to overhaul UIA’s procurement processes and governance framework. If decisive action is not taken, Uganda risks turning its most ambitious industrial initiative into a national disgrace. It is time to put an end to fortune hunting and restore integrity to Uganda’s development agenda.