Parliamentarians in Uganda claim President Yoweri Museveni's interference in the running of Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) has compromised the project.

AGOA was enacted in 2000 by the United States of America to enable African countries access its market.

Members of Parliament on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday 1 complained that Museveni had interfered with the management of AGOA. The committee had summoned the Permanent Secretary (PS), Sam Nahamya, to respond to queries raised by the Auditor General in his 2004/05 report to parliament in Kampala.

"There was no competent qualified staff to technically handle the task of export promotion. There is no economist or commercial officer that can do technical work at the secretariat. The substantive Commercial Officer is a graduate of political science now undertaking a Master of Science and Economic Management. I informed the Accounting Officer that this might affect the project adversely," the Auditor General said of the Export Led Growth Strategy Unit (ELGSU) appointed by the president to run AGOA.

ELGSU was reportedly set up by the president to handle AGOA matters so that bureaucracy does not bog them down.

Nahamya told the MPs recruitment of ELGSU staff and payment of their salaries is directly handled by the president's office.

"They are not answerable to me. I was asked only to carter for their operational budget. I only pay their office rent, travel expenses, fuel and allowances," the PS said.

Under the AGOA project, a textile factory-Tri-Star Apparel fully funded by government-was built for the export of garments to the US. However, recently, it closed causing a loss of over US$10million. But its management claimed they "had cut down" production because of the power crisis.

"State House should not be involved. We shall ask the appointing authority to leave those activities to the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry," the PAC chairman, Nandal Mafabi, said.

The committee was also informed that the Ministry funds the AGOA operations to a tune of over US$400,000.

Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info


Click here to view a sector profile of Uganda’s bilateral trade with the United States, disaggregated by total exports and imports, AGOA exports and GSP exports.

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