The Drill
By African Centre for Media Excellence
The DrillMar 30, 2022
Did the Amendment of Public Finance Management Act 2015 Erode Uganda’s Fiscal Discipline in Oil and Gas Sector
In December 2021, Parliament passed The Public Finance Management (Amendment) Act, a law that governs how public money and resources are mobilised or collected, stored, dispensed and reported on
Can a new Mining and mineral law help Uganda to harness its minerals potential
- Mining and Minerals Act, 2021, repeals the Mining Act, 2003.
- Introduces a competitive licensing regime for brownfields (existing mining projects) and retains first come, first served model for greenfields (new mining projects).
- A model mining agreement for large-scale mining businesses is introduced.
- Prospecting, exploration, and retention licences are retained, and the location licence is replaced with the small-scale and artisanal mining licences.
- A National Mining Company, more like the Uganda National Oil Company, is created.
- A traceability and certification scheme to eliminate smuggling of tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold is established (3TGs), and will enable direct access to lucrative international markets.
- Royalty sharing revised with owners of land with minerals getting 5% instead of the old 3%.
- The Mineral Protection Unit is abolished.
- The ministry of energy and mineral development will publish on its website information about actual owners (beneficial owners) of mining businesses.
- Offenders of the law will pay fines ranging from Shs60–500 million or serve imprisonment terms of between 2 and 7 years or both. Some consider this harsh.
- Building substances (development minerals) such as sand, murram, clay to be regulated under a separate law.
Read explainer on ACME Website.
Ending Secret Deals in Uganda's Extractives Through EITI
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is an international standard that promotes openness around the management of oil, gas, and mineral resources. Countries that are interested in extractive operations that are transparent, accountable and not corrupt are free to join the EITI. This initiative requires the disclosure of information by governments and companies at all stages of an oil or mining project.
How transparent will the sector be?
East African Crude Oil Pipeline: Why A Uniform Law Was Needed Before FID
Uganda passed the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (Special Provisions) Bill 2021 in December, one of the final major requirements that financiers of what will be the world’s longest underground heated crude oil pipeline needed before committing money to the project.
We speak to Dickens Kamugisha, the Chief Executive Officer of Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) and Peter Muliisa, the Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs officer of the Uganda National Oil Company to explain the law.
Read the explainer article about the law here.