Peter Wandera of Transparency International Uganda, Winnie Ngabiirwe of Global Rights Alert and Arthur Larock, Country Director Action Aid Uganda at the launch of the EITI campaign. Photo: Chimp Reports
A collection of Civil Society Organization , among them being, Global Rights Alert, Transparency International, and Action Aid International have launched a campaign to collect over 1000 signature to petition President Yoweri Museveni to become a member of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to be in position to make oil deals public.
The petition fronted by the CSOs is geared at to encourage the Government of Uganda to substantively commit to improved transparency and information sharing in regards to the country’s oil and mineral production.
‘We would like the government to make binding commitment by agreeing to take tangible steps to better involve citizens in the developments in the oil and mining sectors by sharing critical information with the public.’
However, the executive director Global Rights Alert, Winfred Ngabiirwe, said the in order to see substantive improvements to the level of transparency in Uganda’s oil and minerals sectors, there must be commitment from the highest levels of government. While the government may verbally commit to sharing revenue information and contracts, in line with becoming an EITI country, if any significant power base in government is not on board, these commitments may never come to fruition. Committing to information sharing is a question of political will, not technical capacity.