Closed Uganda High Commission cost $7m a year

ACTING Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon says the TT High Commission in Uganda was closed because the desired agriculture and energy objectives were not achieved and the annual operating cost of $7 million annually could be better spent elsewhere.

She was responding to a question in the Senate yesterday from Opposition Senator Taharqa Obika who asked whether a prior assessment was done to forecast the effect of the closure of the High Commission. The Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, in a statement on its website, announced the closure of the High Commission at Kampala, Uganda from November 30, 2016, and urged TT nationals and other people wishing to access services to to contact the High Commission at Abuja, Nigeria.

Gopee-Scoon, acting for Minister Dennis Moses, who was abroad, said the closure was based on clear objectives, which were achieved and cost-benefit analyses concluded anticipated results of having the high commission would not be realised.

"It was also concluded, in view of the financial circumstances faced by our twin-island republic, that the expense of approximately $7 million per annum to operate the mission could be better utilised by establishing a mission in a country where more tangible gains could be readily derived."

She also said the countries to which the High Commission to Uganda was accredited could be covered by the High Commission in Nigeria for countries in Africa and a mission in the Middle East to the countries in that region.

Obika asked what the objectives were that had not been achieved.

Gopee-Scoon responded that, apart from deepening closer relations between the two countries, there were definite agriculture diplomacy objectives and energy diplomacy objectives as well. She said it was anticipated the pipeline between Uganda and Kenya would provide opportunities for exporting energy services and building capacity for people in Uganda as they seek to develop their energy ministry, but this did not materialise.

She also said the TT Energy Chamber only made one visit to Uganda, and on the agriculture aspect, the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Company (the statutory body responsible for the agricultural marketing function) "did not go the distance as expected."