Stationery dealer tastes pain of trading with Government

Since government controls money it is attractive doing business with it.

But doing so can prove a pain sometimes going by what befell one Edward Kakembo Nsubuga. Nsubuga deals in stationery at Nkrumah lane in Kampala.

He did the business of photocopying, binding and scanning with the ministry of works and transport six years back and he has never received a penny for the services delivered.

He has since been trying in vain to demand for payment of a total of Ushs 440,092,466 worth the services he offered.

The dejected businessman is now trying his luck in the courts of law. He has filed his lawsuit through Kiwanuka, Karugire and Company hoping against hope that his pursuit will finally jolt government into paying him.

A plaint filed in the names of Nsubuga’s TTB Investments company indicates that the works and transport ministry signed an agreement to trade with him on March 15, 2010.

The ministry’s PS at the time C. Muganzi signed the agreement while Nsubuga signed on behalf of his stationary firm.

Eager to make money, Nsubuga did not wait for the signing of the papers granting him the tender. He started right away to deliver on requisitions delivered at his firm by the ministry. The ministry would later sign the necessary tendering paperwork on June 24, 2013 as per the letter referenced ADM/F185/1-15 February 2010.

While the ministry has been telling Nsubuga how it cannot pay because there was no subsisting contract between it and him, it does not say why it cannot pay him for services rendered after the signing of the tender award papers.

Nor does the ministry explain why it went ahead and requisitioned for services and actually enjoyed them minus the tender award papers.

On his part, Nsubuga demands that the ministry pays for the services he rendered, pays interest of 23 percent from 2010, pay compensation for breaching the contract as well as money he would spend pursuing the matter in court.

The commercial court’s deputy registrar Thaddeus Thaddeus Opisen sent out summons to the Attorney General on April 15 giving him 15 days to give a written explanation.

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