First independent CDA audit lands in Karamoja

So, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development commissioned an independent audit in early 2026 of the community development agreements in force across licensed operations in Karamoja. The audit is the first of its kind under the Mining and Minerals Act 2022 and is designed to test whether financial commitments, infrastructure obligations and consultation schedules are being honoured on the ground.

Karamoja is a deliberate choice of pilot region. It combines the country's richest mineral endowment with its thinnest formal service delivery and its most acute artisanal-industrial coexistence questions. If the audit produces credible, publishable findings, the model is expected to be extended nationwide.

01What the agreements were supposed to do

Community development agreements were one of the more significant innovations of the Mining and Minerals Act 2022. They require holders of large-scale rights to negotiate defined commitments with the communities affected by their operations and to fund them. In Karamoja, where mineral activity sits alongside acute service gaps, the provision carried more weight than almost anywhere else in the country.

02Why an audit was needed

Truth be told, Signed agreements are visible; delivery against them is not. UMT's reporting from Moroto, Napak and Amudat has repeatedly found residents who know an agreement exists but cannot say what it promises, and district officials who receive no schedule of works against which to hold anyone. An independent audit is the first mechanism that could establish the gap between commitment and spend.

03What a credible audit would examine

Four things: whether an agreement exists for every qualifying licence, whether the community party was genuinely representative, what was committed in cash and in kind, and what has demonstrably been delivered. An exercise that stops at the first two questions will produce a compliance count rather than an accountability finding.

04Counter-argument

Operators make a fair point that community expectations often exceed what any single company can fund, and that agreements are sometimes asked to substitute for absent public services. An audit that measures companies against the state's obligations rather than their own would be unfair and would discourage the negotiation the Act intends.

05What to watch

Whether the audit report is published in full rather than summarised, whether it names licences without agreements, and whether the ministry attaches any consequence to the findings. We shall keep following this one.