Uganda’s government is to buy a $48,2-million Gulfstream jet for President Yoweri Museveni, media reported on Wednesday, and critics questioned whether the poor East African country could afford it.
A committee of lawmakers endorsed the proposal, moving it closer to parliamentary approval, the state-owned New Vision newspaper said.
Officials were not immediately available for comment.
”We believe this is not a luxury for the president. It is a national asset,” parliamentary committee chairperson Mary Karooro was quoted in the paper as saying.
Karooro said the new plane would require less fuel than Museveni’s existing presidential jet, need fewer inspections and stopovers on long-haul flights and be cheaper to maintain.
Critics denounced the purchase as greed in an impoverished nation where the average wage is $300 per year.
”Why should a leader of a poor country fly a jet when leaders of some of the industrialised countries he begs from travel on commercial flights?” the Weekly Observer wrote in an editorial.
Karooro said the government would either take out a loan from HSBC at 10% to buy the plane or borrow $28-million from the central bank, the rest of the cost being covered by proceeds from the sale of his existing jet.
Museveni’s frequent use of his presidential jet has sparked controversy in the past. In 2003, he enraged critics by using it to fly his daughter to a hospital in Germany so she could give birth, at a cost of $30 000 to the taxpayer. – Reuters