Hon. Paul Omara, Member of Parliament for Otuke County and proprietor of Ngeta Tropical Holdings, is facing growing scrutiny over the company’s reported Shs1.76 billion loan obligation to the Microfinance Support Centre (MSC) and efforts to have the debt written off.
The controversy, which became public during the COSASE meeting of Tuesday in Kampala at Parliament, is particularly troubling because the money was advanced for business purposes, yet evidence surrounding the company’s operations points to funds being diverted from their intended purpose.
Instead of putting the financing to productive use and ensuring repayment, COSASE will be probing Omara for allegedly using the money elsewhere on things like sex and other forms of lavish lifestyle. A diehard ally of Betty Amongi of UPC, Paul Omara is famous for being one man who likes “eating with the big spoon” in Kampala, while the public institution, in this case MSC, carries the burden of the unpaid debt.
Ngeta Tropical Holdings has previously received substantial financing from MSC. In 2018, the Daily Monitor reported that the company received a Shs1billion soft loan to expand its sunflower oil production.
Another Monitor profile reported Omara (who badly wanted to be made the chairman for budget committee of parliament and went to war fighting GCW Jane Ruth Aceng when the President and CEC rejected him as not being good enough) saying that the company had borrowed up to Shs3.7 billion from MSC in 2018 to acquire a refining machine.
The question on many poverty-stricken Langis lips now is: Where did the money go? And why should taxpayers and a public financial institution be left carrying the consequences of such an imprudent bulky politician from Otuke?
Even more disturbing are the efforts to have the outstanding obligation written off as the MSC boss confessed before COSASE on Tuesday. If a private company can obtain billions in public financing, divert the money from its intended purpose and subsequently seek political intervention to escape repayment, then the issue goes beyond an ordinary commercial debt. It becomes a matter of public accountability, which the ill-fated Paul Omara shouldn’t escape.
The experience of Lango Cooperative Union provides an important comparison. The Union borrowed Shs2.4 billion from the Microfinance Support Centre for cotton production and subsequently struggled to repay the loan. MSC moved to recover the debt, including taking over the Union’s Ngeta ginnery, while the Union remained with a substantial outstanding balance.
More recently, Lango Cooperative Union leadership reported that Shs1.456 billion owed to MSC had been cleared from government compensation funds, illustrating that the debt was ultimately treated as an obligation requiring settlement rather than simply disappearing.
This raises a straightforward question for MSC: Why should Ngeta Tropical Holdings, owned by such a very ungrateful politician, be treated differently?
Hon. Omara Paul should therefore explain how the loan was utilised, what remains outstanding, whether any application for a write-off has been made and the basis upon which such a write-off could be justified.
MSC, on its part, owes the public a clear explanation and COSASE must relentless squeeze the MD Peter Mujuni and his team. If public money was lent for agricultural and industrial development, the institution must demonstrate that the same standards of accountability (similar to what Omara is always demanding in Parliament) applied to Ngeta Tropical Holdings as they have to other borrowers.
Lango Cooperative Union did not get its debt erased. Its assets were pursued and its obligations eventually had to be addressed. Why should a politically connected private company be allowed to take a different route so that the huge tummy man Paul Omara can get away with it? That will be imprudent.
This is not simply about Hon. Omara Paul or Ngeta Tropical Holdings. It is about whether access to political influence can determine who pays back public money and who gets a debt written off.
The public deserves answers similar to what COSASE is demanding. MSC must explain. And if the money was diverted and the loan is still outstanding, Hon. Omara Paul (who is among MPs who received Shs50m each last Friday) should account for every shilling.