KAMPALA: The board chairperson of Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited, Enrica Pinetti, has snubbed Trade Committee of Uganda Parliament, which had invited her to explain an agreement signed with the government to process coffee.
The company secretary, Patson Arinaitwe, and lawyer Anna Itaza were instead in front of the committee on Monday to speak for the company.
MPs didn’t like that the Italian investor wasn’t there. They also pointed out that she had previously turned down Parliament’s invitations to talk about the stalled Lubowa Specialized Hospital project.
People who work for the government signed a coffee document on February 10, 2022. An Italian investor and the Board Chair of Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited also signed on behalf of the company.
The company was given free land in the Industrial and Business Park at Namanve measuring 27 acres after it indicated its capability of establishing a coffee processing facility in Kampala. It will be given exclusive rights to buy all Uganda’s coffee, and its concession will end in 2032, subject to renewal.
The company’s agreement with the government has provisions to exempt the Vinci Coffee Company from paying taxes, including income tax, Pay As You Earn, excise duty, and NSSF. These provisions are meant to help this company. They give them a special tariff of 5 cents per unit in terms of electricity, which they can use.
It was Mwine Mpaka, the chairwoman of the trade committee, who asked Moses Matovu, the company secretary, to explain why Enrica Pinetti wasn’t at the meeting. He said that she had a meeting with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni at State House and couldn’t make it.
Matovu said that he is vested with knowledge of the agreement and that this agreement is not with Pinetti but with the company.
Joseph Ssewungu, the Kalungu West MP, said that the committee needed to interact with the board chairperson of the company and not anyone else. Francis Mwijukye, the MP for Buhweju East, also said that it was good that Enrica was in the country, because she had to appear in front of the committee herself.
During the meeting, Mpaka said that they would be going well. If MPs were not satisfied with the presentation, the committee would then call the company’s directors to appear on Tuesday.
It was MP Mpaka’s job to get the committee clerk to call the directors of Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited on Tuesday. The committee members kept asking for the company directors to show up.
Abed Bwanika, the Shadow Minister for Agriculture, who raised the issue on the floor of Parliament earlier this month, asked the committee to recommend that the agreement be cancelled and that the government officials who made it should be held accountable.
He noted that the agreement was in contravention of the Constitution, the National Coffee Act and other laws. Joyce Bagala of Mityana Woman, Gorreti Namugga of Mawogola South, and Richard Lumu of Mityana South were also in the group.
The former presidential candidate said that the agreement needed to be cancelled so that Ugandans who earn their livelihood from coffee are protected.
In his petition to the committee, Bwanika said that the agreement was discriminatory to Ugandans and sought to alienate coffee farmers, and that the exemption of taxes was very disturbing and needed parliament to look into the impact on the economy.
Bwanika also says that there is no evidence that the Vinci company has experience in processing and exporting coffee and that giving the company authority to determine coffee prices contravenes Section 52 of the National Coffee Act, 2012, which gives the mandate to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
These same issues were raised by Bwanika before Parliament, and this led to the directive by Speaker Anita Among for the committee to investigate the matter and report back to Parliament.