A consortium of civil society organisations led by Uganda Debt Network and Action Aid Uganda have written an open letter to the President of the World Bank raising serious concerns about the performance of the World Bank and its portfolio in Uganda as well as several infrastructure projects that the bank supports in Uganda.

The Bank’s current portfolio in the country is tagged at USD 2.1Billion and its performance although not publicly known, is said to be at 20%.

Following the most resent inquiry into the road sector, a government instituted commission of inquiry reported that Uganda lost over UShs.4 trillion to corruption in the roads subsection alone over a period of 7years and the World Bank it’s self-estimated that Uganda losses 500billions annually in corruption. This is why the NGOs believe that government and the World Bank are not demonstrating sufficient will to deal with it.

Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday at the head offices of Uganda Debt Network, Julius Kapwepwe the programs director named some of their concerns as the poor World Bank portfolio performance in Uganda, compensation and the plight of citizens affected by development projects, the violation of Ugandan laws and standard international best practices in procurement, local content requirements, developing domestic manufacturing capability and creating jobs.

He noted that the World Bank is publically silent as repression and abuse of human rights of Ugandans continue unabated and rising public debt and implications for poverty reduction.

The civil society members called upon the World Bank to consider re-evaluating all on going and proposed operations in Uganda and come clean to Ugandans on all their activities, more so partnerships in the Uganda.

The civil society are also concerned about the country’s growing public debt. They want the bank to appreciate the fact that unless government becomes disciplined with regard to borrowing, Ugandans will end up chocking on debt.

‘’Uganda is a naturally gifted country so if we expect the World Bank to run a way it will not. For it will keep giving us loans that we will pay and our great grandchildren will pay. Uganda has a higher debt than it had before and it’s up to us to stop it’’ said Arthur Larok the country director Action Aid Uganda.

source:http://www.chimpreports.com/civil-society-raise-red-flag-on-world-bank-activities-in-uganda/