Ugandans Shocked As Trade Ministry Demands For Shs 2.4Billion To Buy New Luxury Cars For Its 4 Ministers, Each Car To Cost 600M Shs

PSST Ramathan Ggoobi has come under immense pressure to immediately authorize the spending of Ugx2.4bn to facilitate the purchasing of brand new SUV vehicles for the ministry of trade ministers.

It has four ministers such as Fred Guume Ngobi, Francis Mwebesa, David Bahati and Lt. Gen William Mbadi.The need for the new vehicles came as a result of one of the ministers who some weeks back crashed his official vehicle which is now written off.

The minister crashed the vehicle by knocking a herd of cattle as he rushed to go and disrupt a campaign event for one of his opponents in his constituency.

The minister now has no car and because he is powerful and well connected in government he ordered the accounting officer to buy four vehicles so that it doesn’t seem like he is the only one who is extravagant and burdening the taxpayer at trade.

The same minister has been all over the place pressurizing Ggoobi to authorize the expenditure, something which has angered many technocrats at the finance ministry.Each of the four cars will cost not less than 600m which brings the total to more than Ugx2.4bn altogether.

This will be scandalous because only last year Parliament was investigating the same trade ministry for buying expensive cars for ministers yet government is broke and not in mood to buy new cars.

The same minister has threatened to frame and cause arrest of trade ministry technocrats who dare oppose the proposed purchase of the 4 cars. He needs a new car badly because things aren’t very good for him in the constituency where his opponent is working day and night to retire him in public interest.

The same minister is worried because two of his tribemates who used to fund his campaigns died one in an accident and another a money lender in a lodge near Kyambogo university where he was exhausted by a young campus gal.

Some time back, this publication exclusively published a story where the Ministry of Trade, Industries and Cooperatives top bosses were fighting with juniors over cars.

When President Museveni deployed elderly Francis Mwebesa (Cabinet Minister), David Bahati (state minister for Industry), Harriet Ntabazi (State Minister for Trade) and Frederick Ngobi Gume (State Minister for Cooperatives) and as well Permanent Secretary Geraldine Ssali to this docket, they embarked on planning how to enjoy freebies associated with this juicy ministry.

These included classified budgets, new posh cars, fuel allowances and others.Five new cars (SUVS, V8) were immediately ordered and delivered.This excited juniors, especially, commissioners and their assistants. Why? They expected the four ministers and the PS to handover their old vehicles to them. This was not the case.  We are told that the ministers and the PS kept on using both old and new vehicles as their juniors walked or sometimes used boda bodas.