The Departed Asians Property Custodian Board (DAPCB) has been told that the Minister of Finance or the board itself have no authority to cancel a certificate of repossession previously issued by the latter.
The clarification follows the Board’s move to repossess a property on plot 14C, FRV 78 folio 19 Martin Road, Kampala.
In February, 2021, DAPCB wrote to Martin Road LC1 Chairperson informing him that they are in a process of verifying and winding up all its activities on expropriated properties of which the property was among those to be verified.
“Further, the accupants are illegally occupying this property without any colour of authority to which they are required to pay rent arrears since 1972 to date. There after, they should provide vacant possession to enable the Minister of Finance deal in the property,”Hirome Mayanja wrote on behalf of the chairman Divestiture Committee- DAPCB.
” The purpose of this letter is to request the occupants to provide vacant possession of plot 14C Martin Road, Kampala not later than 60 days from the receipt of this letter,” Mr Mayanja added.
However, the Solicitor General later informed DAPCB that the Minister responsible for Finance has no authority to cancel a certificate of repossession previously he/she issued and that the power is reserved for the High Court of Uganda under the section 15 of the expropriated properties act cap 87.
“Reference is made to your letter no CB2672 dated 26 February 2021 addressed to the LC1 Chairperson Martin Road on the captioned subject, which was brought to the attention of the Hon. Attorney General on 16 April 2021 in his capacity as principal legal advisor of the government by M/s Sharma Import and Export (U) Ltd, the registered owners of the property to vacate it to enable the Minister for finance deal in the property,”JBR Suuza wrote on behalf of the Solicitor General in a letter dated 15 June 2021.
“…. Its also the position of the law that a certificate (of title) is conclusive proof of title to land, unless it has been proved that the title was procured through fraud. It is further, the position of the law that only court of law can declare a transfer of land fraudulent.”
Mr Ssuza added that from the available records, the property in question having been repossessed by its pre-1972 owners on the authority of a certificate issued by the Minister has changed hands five times since 1994, its inconceivable that the board in 2021 can claim or purport to have authority over the property.
“The purported claim of ownership or authority over the property by the board as has been the case with respect to other long possessed properties in the recent past, is downright illegal and is unnecessarily exposing this office and the government at large to costly litigation,”Mr Suuza told the board.
” This office therefore will disassociate itself from the illegal action being contrived by the board in this particular matter and urge the board to desist from further interfering with the registered owner’s constitutionally protected right to the property in question.”
Early this year, Parliament learnt that there had been fraud in the management of the properties of the Asians who were expelled from Uganda in 1972 by the late President Idi Amin.
In a report presented by the former Chairperson of the Subcommittee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase), Ibrahim Kasozi, it was discovered that there were irregularities in management, compensation and repossession of properties owned by the departed Asians.
The Asians, after their expulsion left behind property, which included businesses, stock and real estate. Some of the property was repossessed yet owners had been fully compensated by the government of Uganda.
The Committee established that in 1977, talks between the Uganda government and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees were held in Entebbe to discuss compensation of property left behind by departed Asians.
“In this meeting, it was agreed that land was not compensable under Ugandan law since it was owned by Ugandans. Buildings over 10 years were regarded as amortized and only buildings five years or newer were to be valued and compensated at the 1972 market value,” Kasozi said.
He added that it was therefore, established that part of the compensation to the departed Asians had been paid by the government in 1976 with shs13.4 million paid to the Indian government.
Kasozi noted that through the UNHCR, Uganda agreed to pay shs40.4 million as compensation to persons of undetermined nationality for assets left in Uganda. According to the Committee, for years, the board has had issues ranging from failure to effectively supervise the activities of the secretariat to outright corruption and negligence.
“Although Section 5 (1) of the Assets of Departed Asians Act mandates the board to sit at least once every month, the six ministers on the board are always too busy to meet and have not done so for 10 years,” the report stated in part.
The committee report added that some properties had ended up in the hands of unscrupulous individuals who had then transferred the same to bona-fide purchasers for value without notice.
“At compilation of the report, a total of 119 former Asian owners had been compensated to a tune shs1.765 billion,” the report adds.
Kasozi said that most fraud relating to expropriated properties was propagated through the powers of attorney with certain individuals being at the centre of such fraudulent dealings.
“People like Mohammed Alibhai went to countries like Canada where these Asians are, obtained generic powers of attorney, processed repossessions, fraudulently obtained certificates of repossession from the Board and went on to manage or even owned the properties in issue to the determent of the real owners who would never enjoy the benefit or repossession,” he said.
The Committee recommended among others that fraudulently acquired repossession certificates becancelled and reverted to the government.
”The perpetrators should be prosecuted and repossessions whose former owners did not physically return to manage the properties as required by law should be cancelled,” Kasozi added.
Theodore Ssekikubo (NRM, Lwemiyaga County) concurred with the report saying that the fraudsters must be arrested.
“The late Idi Amin paid for these properties fully. These fraudsters however forged the documents and took the properties.The Custodian Board hasoutlived its usefulness andthose culpable should be charged,” Ssekikubo said.
Budadiri West MP, Nathan Mafabi backed that the Board should be dissolved.
“We should direct that the Board is closed, the people working in it are arrested and taken to Luzira Maximum Prison because they are stealing public property,” he stated.
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