President Museveni has sought for accountability for the shs37 billion that he directed to be injected into the Uganda Coffee Consortium headed by Nelson Tugume.
In a January, 15, 2024 letter, the Minister for Science and Innovation, Dr.Monica Musenero has written to the leaders of the consortium informing them of the president’s request for accountability.
“His Excellency the President is requesting for an update on how far we have gone following the disbursement of the funds worth shs 37billion towards coffee value chain. In that regard, the Science, Technology, and Innovation Secretariat is in the process of putting together the technical financial report for the above-mentioned subject,” Musenero said in the letter.
He therefore asked the chairperson of the consortium to provide the technical progressive report against the milestones but also avail the record of accounts and all accountability documents for an internal audit.
More pressure
The development comes on the backdrop of more pressure onto the letters of the coffee consortium led by Nelson Tugume who have been accused of hoodwinking the president into releasing the funds that allegedly went into personal accounts and not benefitting coffee exporters.
Robert Kabushenga , a coffee farmer and owner of Rugyeyo farm has of late accused Tugume of selling a non-starter project to President Museveni for his own selfish interests.
“They got shs37bn(US$10m) provided in the budget. Questions about the wisdom of this were brushed aside because it nast political clearance as a part of the presidency budget. In fact Odrek explained in an interview that this money was part of a larger trade frontier fund to finance exports,” said Kabushenga.
“Nelson then cobbled together a disparate group of unsuspecting coffee actors who innocently joined thinking it was a genuine initiative to fund coffee exports. He then started going to others demanding a few of Shs 10m to join the consortium so as to access this export finance. The more discerning ones stayed away… All objections to and advice against this subjective handling of public funds was shouted down in fits of political rage. Nelson, true character then changed tack. He abandoned the larger membership of the consortium. Instead he worked with 3 trusted confidantes and they hatched a new purpose for the $10m. They changed from export finance to funding coffee hubs set up by him across the country and branding. He would later tell some sector players that he was arranging for shs300bn for coffee export financing to be included in the national budget for FY 24/25,”Kabushenga said in missives on his X account.
Tugume has not come out to clear the air about the allegations but his lawyers recently threatened to sue Kabushenga for the posts and demanded that he pulls them down .
