Solicitor General advises governments not to disclose oil pipeline agreements
By Correspondents
The solicitor general, Francis Atoke has advised government not to disclose contents of the documents related to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project (EACOP) to third parties because they contain confidential information.
Atoke reveals this in his advice dated August 4, 2021, to the permanent secretary ministry of Energy and Mineral Development Pius Kasande (now former) who wrote to him seeking to be guided on what to do after a request for disclosure of the said documents by city lawyer Male Mabirizi.
In April 2021, President Yoweri Museveni on behalf of Uganda, signed the EACOP agreement with his Tanzanian counterpart Samia Hassan Suluhu.
The $3.5 billion project in issue, paved way for the construction of a 1,440 kilometer crude oil pipeline from the Albertine Region of Uganda to Tanzania’s seaport of Tanga.
But after the agreements, on April 12, 2021, Mabirizi wrote to the former permanent secretary of ministry of Energy and Mineral Development demanding for access to the Host Government Agreement for the pipeline (HGA), Tariff and Transportation Agreement (TTA) and Share Holding Agreement (SHA).
“This is very important when it comes to oil because in many countries, public officers have used oil resources for their personal enrichment to the detriment of citizens despite huge revenues from oil,” wrote Mabirizi.
“There is information linking Uganda government senior officials involved in the pipeline project to corruption-related offences hence the need to access the agreements to ensure that any criminality or wrongdoing is quickly detected and perpetrators dealt with as soon as possible.”
Quoting the Access to Information Act, Mabirizi said that the ministry had no option but to grant him access. On April 13, 2021, Robert Kasande the former permanent secretary to the ministry of Energy and Mineral Development wrote to the solicitor general seeking his legal guidance taking into account the commercial nature of the agreements and confidentiality provisions therein.