Former Energy Minister Syda Bbumba signed a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) that gave oil company Tullow a tax waiver amounting to $157m (about Shs 568bn), Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, State Enterprise and Statutory Authority (Cosase) has learnt, with shock.

Currently probing the Shs 6bn handshake and the oil sector woes, Cosase had summoned Bbumba to explain her signature that allowed the waiver.

“I did not read the agreement. My signature was based on approval by the Solicitor General. Once he cleared it, I took it that everything was fine,” Bbumba said.

She shifted the blame to the Attorney General: “Article 119(4) of the Ugandan Constitution stipulates that the Attorney General is the legal advisor of government… I was advised by the most competent people in the sector, I wasn’t an oil expert.”

But Mpigi Woman MP Sarah Nakawunde Temulanda retorted: “This leaves us in shock and wondering the kind of Ministers that we have in the country who sign documents without first reading through.”