The tax payer is bound to pay a colossal Ugx33.2bn instead of Ugx 7bn in compensation to Ranch owners who lost land to government in the early 1990s, the permanent Secretary in the Lands and Housing Gabindadde Musoke has told Parliament.

In the early 1990s, government bought ranches from Masaka, Singo, Bunyoro, Ankole, and Masaka to settle squatters , however three years ago, it stopped paying the outstanding balance.

Gabindadde made the revealation while appearing before the public Accounts Committee chaired by Jinja East MP Paul Mwiru to explain the poor finance system as raised by the Auditor General in year ending 2013.

“There was an exercise these domestic arrears verified and taken on by treasury. They have not allocated money to address these domestic arrears. I wrote a letter and told the treasury that the debt of ranchers was getting out of hand,” Gabindadde.

He explained that since government had stopped payments, the ranchers have gone to court asking for compensation basing on current market value.

He tabled 13 ranchers who asked for the review in their compensation from what was agreed upon in the 1990s.

The accounting officer told the committee that he has brought the issue to the attention of the Secretary to the Treasury in a Letter dated August 28th 2014.

Bufumbira East MP Eddie Kwizera questioned why Lands Ministry hasn’t surrendered the compensations to Ministry of Justice.