THE battle line has been drawn up and Chrisanna Consult (Uganda)Limited and Jinja City Council are no longer partners but literally warring parties who will face and legally sort each other in the court of law.
Fresh reports emerging reveal that the Jinja High Court Deputy Registrar Robert Mukanza has issued An Administrative Order asking officials of the Jinja City Southern Division against stopping the operations of M/s Chrisanna Consult (U) Ltd from carrying out the Day Street parking revenue collection as the official tenderer.
“…that the order shall run until the hearing of the interim application Miscellaneous Application No.140 of 2024 on the 26th June, 2024 inter party…”, the order reads in part.
The order dated 21st June, 2024 was signed by Robert Mukanza who also put the official seal at the end.
This followed the abrupt termination of the contract by the Jinja City Council authorities who faulted the company owned by Philips Bogere for breaching covenants contained in the contract document.
Interestingly, Philips Bogere is also a member of the Jinja City Land Board that was approved early this year after more than two years of bickering back and forth by some politicians.
According to Jinja City Council, the directors of Chrisanna Consult(U)Ltd have stubbornly refused and failed to adhere to the terms and conditions for the management of the contract in question where they have now accumulated arrears of 231,300,000/=.
“…accordingly, your contract to manage street parking in the city is hereby terminated with immediate effect. You are asked to hand over the centre to the Southern Division Town Clerk for further management…” reads in part the shocking termination letter.
The one page letter dated 5th June, 2024 was signed by Peter Mawerere the Jinja City Deputy Town Clerk and copied to the Jinja Resident City Commissioner (Darius Naninda), the Jinja City Mayor (Alton Peter Kasolo Okocha), the Southern Division Mayor (Ashraf Nasser) and the Principle Revenue officer, among others.
Before issuing the termination letter, we have established that Peter Mawerere had issued a Demand Note which reflects 221,300,000/= then minutes later the termination giving a different figure of 231,300,000/=
As if that is not enough, Peter Mawerere also threatened to drag Chrisanna Consult (U) Ltd to the court of law in a bid to recover all the money cited above, in any case not later than 30th June, 2024.
However Philips Bogere disagrees saying the manner in which Peter Mawerere communicated raises a lot of questions on the intention and motive of the entire City Hall authorities.
Chrisanna Consult (U) Ltd and Jinja City Council (Southern Division) entered into a contract for services on the 5th September, 2023 to manage and collect revenue from day street parking in Jinja City.
The company in question is meant to remit 65,000,000/= every month to the Jinja City Council treasury, which it has been faulted for failure to meet the contractual obligations.
Now, through his law firm M/S Wasswa P.Silas and Company Advocates describing the termination as irrational has rushed to the court through a miscellaneous application number.
The matter will now take a full blown court hearing and both parties have vowed to teach each other a lesson that will never be forgotten.
This is not the first time the issue of street parking, described as problematic, is going to the court.
A few years ago, Robert Luzze the director Nalu Tours and Travels Limited also had issues with the Jinja City Council leadership over street parking matters which ended in the court in favour of the Council.
In 2022, the IGG directed Moris Lorika the then Town Clerk to terminate the tendering processes over alleged irregularities and corruption
In 2020,a Mbarara City based businessman Joseph Kiiza the director Globe World Engineering Limited(GWEL) also had running legal battles with Jinja City Council during the reign of Ambrose Ocen as the Town Clerk over street parking tender.
For more than 10 years the issue of street parking tender has been a thorn in the skin of Jinja City Council where some contractors accuse some officials at Town Hall of conflict of interests.
Jinja City has endless cases in the court of law with some people becoming concerned that there could be some internal collusions where the Council loses so that the corresponding monetary penalties are shared.
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