Through Revenue Tracking and Management thematic area, CSCO monitors revenue derived from the oil, gas, and mineral sub-sectors. A holistic revenue management mechanism covers revenue mobilization, and prudent revenue management and accountability with a wider catchment than that provided by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Getting the Uganda Government to join EITI was a significant milestone in CSCOs advocacy journey. As CSCO, we now have members holding positions on the national Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) that influence the agenda. But in terms of CSCO’s ambitious revenue oversight agenda, EITI is still limited. For instance, it does not cover Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) characterized by capital flight, tax avoidance and other under-hand transactions. The desired improvement necessitates active, systematic and synergetic citizen’s monitoring engagements linking local, national, and trans-national stakeholders.
CSCO is pushing for the need to optimize returns on investment to finance other sectors, a just energy transition, and sustain benefits. Recognizing the national aspiration for extractives sector development necessitates better investment options if Uganda is to optimize on benefits without compromise. Oil and gas resources are finite, and thus the potential for these resources to reduce poverty and raise Uganda to middle income status will depend on the investment decisions the country makes and how returns and other safeguards are managed. Some investment decisions have been hasty and uninformed yet they cannot be rescinded due to penalties and other conditions in committed agreements. Other decisions become costly to Ugandans because of prolonged decision making that have repercussions on the anticipated return as it’s exposed to risk of depreciation. Cost-benefit analyses of investment options and evaluation of prior and ongoing decisions is of high interest to CSCO. It will be pursued by undertaking strategic studies, engagement of private sector actors and business development experts with a view to tapping into their competitive business exposure and expertise as well as co-developing cases for educating and influencing designated government commercial entities such as UNOC, government negotiators, legislature through the Parliamentary Forum on Oil and Gas (PFOG), Parliamentary Forum on Climate Change (PFCC), and the Parliament’s Budget Committee among others and the relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). CSCO will therefore push for better investment planning focused on genuine needs of our country and prorated over the 25 years of oil and gas production, and about 28 years of transition minerals, and projected to assure benefits sustainability beyond the production phase.