Joshua Nahamya
The Mbarara City Town Clerk, Assy Abirebe Tumwesigire has directed that an internal Audit be done in the Mbarara City Central Market SACCO to recover its missing funds.
While meeting the vendors on Friday to iron out several issues affecting their operations in the new market, Abirebe criticized the vendors for not having an organized SACCO like any other markets in Uganda to foster development.
“I am going to bring external auditors who do not come from this side they audit all the books of that SACCO and whoever borrowed money from it should pay back immediately,” Abirebe said
“We want to sort out that SACCO I will also instruct an internal auditor for Mbarara city council to go there and check in the books of account and see where that money went ever since they started operations up to date,” He added
According to Abirebe, a total of about 100 million shillings went missing noting that this money needs to be recovered to enable the vendors to get enough capital to run their businesses in the market.
“We have a SACCO for the market and that SACCO was boosted with some money and even some vendors had their savings but that money was mismanaged.” He said
Abirebe said that the SACCO should be having more than UGX 100 mln and he asked the members who extorted the money to return it to the SACCO.
Assy Abirebe, the City Clerk Mbarara
“When there is that money, vendors can be able to borrow at a low interest rate to allow them to operate while paying back but not this case of an individual taking it for good, remember part of this money was government money and it’s a revolving fund which you must not default at any one point” Abirebe explained
He added that vendors have gone the extra mile to borrow money from money lenders which has posed a risk to government facilities where they operate this warning vendors to avoid money lending. “I would like to caution you to avoid money lending”
He further warned money lenders to always deal with individuals but not attach government property which lures the city council to unending court cases.
“The market is for the government, a vendor who mortgages a lockup and court bailiffs come to take it, for us we shall tell them to arrest you, they take you wherever they want whether they go and sell your property in the village but our market must be spared” Abirebesaid
He also directed the city commercial officer to clean the house and make sure that vendors who borrowed the money started paying to make the SACCO active again.
“I want us to sort out the issue of the SACCO so that we get money for these people but for those who have defaulted the SACCO money, make sure you look for that money and pay so that vendors stop borrowing money from money lenders because that is why it was started for vendors to get affordable finance but not this business of receiving Shs 2 mln capital at 20% per month from money lenders at the end of the day a vendor fails to pay and business collapse. We want to address that issue because money lending continues to make vendors poor which is not the objective of the government” Abirebe explained
“I want to repeat to whoever received money from the market SACCO should pay if not we are going to arrest you and know that we are going to audit that money because we want the SACCO to move.” He added
Mbarara City Mayor, Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi said that there is no way the government can support the vendors when they don’t have a uniting factor in this case which is a SACO.
“Recently the president gifted LC I chairperson’s SACCO in Mbarara with Shs 30 mln so there is no way you can benefit from the government and elsewhere if you don’t empower your SACCO. Make it a priority for the government to support you because it can only support you when you are united” Kakyebezi emphasized
With respect to the town clerk’s directive, Allan Buhanda Karakure, Senior City Commercial Officer (SCCO) invited the members on Thursday but to his demise out of about 500 members only 20 members complied.
“It was a special AGM to present the special audit report but we didn’t get the quorum, a reason why they suspended the meeting for the next 14 days,” Buhanda said
Why was the meeting boycotted?
Kibanda Donozio, vendor and former board member explained that vendors spent a week busy getting tenants’ agreement from city authorities which denied them a chance to attend the SACCO meeting.
“The tenants’ agreement was long overdue and vendors could not risk leaving the exercise which guarantees them tenancy with the city council to go for the meeting but I am sure now that it has been postponed next time they turn up in big numbers,” Donozio said
He stressed that members are no longer saving in the SACCO because of the change of location and disruptions after occupying the newly constructed facility.
“When we migrated to the new market, some of the members exited, others their property got spoilt other goods got rotten so business wise people got disrupted and with those gaps, people lost the saving culture moral but otherwise we still need our SACCO because it was doing well,” Donozio said
He added that vendors who have loans know themselves and are willing to pay if the businesses stabilize.
“The SACCO is doing well and some of us who borrowed from their money the money is in good hands the loans are even captured well in the SACCO books so there should be no worry about the loans when situations get to normal, we shall pay,” Donozio said
On his part, Emmanuel Muhumuza, member and Chairman of Mbarara Central Market Association retaliated that the SACCO is inactive and members lost interest because of poor governance and office mismanagement.
“For instance today they called us for a meeting but its unfortunate that out of about 570 members who subscribe under that SACCO, only like 15 members turned up. This shows you the level of how members got frustrated with their SACCO. Imagine from 2014, we don’t know the fate of our savings because there has never been any annual general meeting and all over a sudden you call a special general meeting thinking that a member will just attends.” Muhumuza explained
The Chairman that the issue of calling for the audit of Mbarara Central Market SACCO is coming for the second time but no results have ever shown up thus calling the security agencies and anti-corruption units to swing into action and join the investigations
“This has not started today. We have raised these matters to the office of the Resident City Commissioner. I remember last year the RCC constituted a team to investigate fraud allegation that money for the SACCO was extorted deeply but up to now we’ve never gotten any report”
Muhumuza said that he petitioned to relevant offices and authorities to restore sanity in the vendors’ SACCO but has not gotten any answer because of the connivance enforced by the former board not to be apprehended and implicated.
“I have written several letters addressed to those top offices of the commercial officer, town clerk and RCC so that they come to our rescue but all in vain. We need to find out why because we have the right as members who subscribe to the SACCO what is transpiring especially when we spend almost 14 years without assembling a lot must have transpired without our knowledge,” He said
Other Challenges
Muhumuza added that the former board left office and imposed a new board without the members’ consent thus asking the city leadership to drop the self-imposed board and recall the former chairman and his committee members plus the management to answer their allegations.
“Lawfully we don’t know how the new board was installed, it was to our surprise that one morning we found new members introducing themselves to us as our new leaders but we are asking ourselves who elected them? How did the former leadership leave office and how did they handover to the so-called new leaders without us members knowing? What about the missing SACCO funds? Who will pay? We want the former board to explain to us all this mess.” He explained
Muhumuza wants the city leadership to work with security agencies and have an independent auditor to do the forensic audit of the vendors’ SACCO.
“To rejuvenate the plight of vendors for their SACCO, it is through the office of the RCC, town clerk, and the commercial officer to cause investigations and audit of the former SACCO leaders who have abandoned the SACCO handing it over to selfish imposters who are not even vendors in the market. Look at the so-called chairman he has never owned a stall in the market,” He emphasized
The Chairman asked the city leadership to call for a general assembly where the audit report should be read and fresh leaders be elected for Mbarara central SACCO to move forward.
“We need to conduct an elective general assembly where members can vote for the leaders they want for the good of Mbarara central market SACCO. Currently what we have is a concocted board. We need leaders who are vendors not masqueraders to become leaders for the SACCO.” Muhumuza said
He also said that for the last 14 years, vendors in the central market have missed out on benefits from government programs because of selfish individuals who have collapsed their SACCO.
“Recently I watched vendors in the Nakasero market benefiting from the Emyooga programme and PDM because they are organised but look at Mbarara central market with all the good facility that President Museveni gave us but we are not being support because of the disorganisation in our SACCO,” Muhumuza said
The Chairman added that some of the vendors are rotting in jail because of money lenders where vendors have rushed for financial support but end up failing to pay back.
“Right away from inception, we have registered over 35 cases for the vendors whose property has been confiscated by money lenders and others are pending in court” Muhumuza noted
Simpson Mugabe who replaced the alleged chairman Muhammad Nyombi confirmed that Mbarara Central Market SACCO is dormant and has no single management staff to run the affairs of the SACCO.
“When we came into the office, we found that the manager/cashier was being paid on the savings of the members’ which was wrong because you cannot get the money being saved and pay it to the staff. It was actually an oversight and we suspended the manager not until we get the alternative source of money maybe like the interest from loan defaulters normally that’s where we get the money to pay the manager or service any other activity of the SACCO but not necessarily the members’ savings” Mugabe explained
“Currently we do not have any management staff and when you lack a staff member that means business cannot move on as usual. And whenever members find the SACCO closed automatically they realise that no business is going on at the SACCO which I cannot dispute,” He added
As I talk now it is not possible to have a loan not until defaulters pay and we get money to borrow from the other members people have lost morally because they have that there is no money in the SACCO, Mugabe says
The Chairman added that the SACCO has got loan defaulters thus calling upon members that took loans to pay on time.
“When we assumed office, there were a number of debtors and the list is very long. On estimate we have more than 100 members totaling to about 29 mln shillings. We even invited them and waved off the interest rate and the penalties asking them to pay the principal loan. So far about 4.7 mln has been realised and we are calling those who have adamantly defaulted also to come out and pay,” Mugabe explained
He added that the board of five members and a supervisory committee of two members were elected in October 2023 but the members thus called upon more vendors to come and join the market SACCO.
“We were legally elected in broad daylight last year so I only call those distractors heavily indulged in political fights instead of growing in the spirit of growth and development,” Mugabe said
Background
Mbarara Central Market SACCO was registered in 2011, and, by October 23, 2014, it had a capital asset of Shs 23mln, a loan portfolio of Shs 144mln, and a membership of 500 people.
Mbarara Central Market Vendors SACCO Limited last held its annual general meeting on October 23, 2014.
In 2016, the SACCO was given Shs 30mln Emyooga funds, Shs 60mln presidential startup capital, and area Members of Parliament contributed Shs 20mln, but this money is not accounted for.
By 2014, the SACCO had capital assets of Shs 23 million, a loan portfolio of Shs 144 mln, and a membership of 500 people. Currently, it has about 600 members and total savings of about Shs 400 mln which members claim could have been mismanaged.
Currently, it has about 700 members and total savings of about Shs 400mln, some of which members claim are missing.
