Rent-Seeking Practices, Local Resource Curse, and Social Conflict in Uganda’s Emerging Oil Economy

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Most of the comments have been annotated in the manuscript, but repeated here in summary form with some expansion.

Abstract lines 16-21:  

Very little of this in the paper - only touched on very briefly in the conclusion.  Somewhat misleading to have so much of the Abstract dedicated to such a small part of the paper.

Lines 85-87:  The research gap must be stated more clearly to show why this research needs to be done.

Map:  

This paper urgently needs a map to contextualize location within Uganda, and also to show locations of the various sites, roads, towns, regions and kingdoms that are mentioned.  In a paper on land issues, a map is essential.

Lines 337-342:  

Following extensive reports from the local people about negative consequences of oil development, the view from industry and government is presented.  But this counter-argument needs to be resolved.  What is the truth?  Are there perhaps two sides to this story?

Lines 403-409:

The recommendations of this paragraph are too glib and superficial.

From the literature review it is clear that these are not new issues, and these recommendations are almost "standard" for most resource rich countries.  

The authors need to be more specific about how and by who, where and when these recommendations can be implemented.

The real problems facing these communities is not so much that they are vulnerable to the curse, but how to avoid/mitigate such a situation. The authors need to draw from the few success stories.

I have marked that Moderate English changes are required, but perhaps they are more than that.  There are some mistakes, but also a number of cases of poor or clumsy formulation.  In some cases words are missing and sentences are truncated, e.g. the very last sentence of the paper.

 It appears that different sections have been written by different authors, with some parts more correct and elegant than others.  The whole paper needs to be at the same standard.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

We have attended to all the comments that you asked us to work on. We are grateful for your detailed comments which you sent to us. We hope all the issues you raised and been worked on will meet your expectations.

Thank you, 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Main problem: This piece seeks to confirm the existence of the resource curse and so for example, although  Uganda discovered  commercial oil in 2006, paper  says  "corruption is endemic" . How can something be endemic when it started in 2006? As we say, it sets out apriori--in advance to confirm the existence of the resource curse. This is the stereo-typical approach. It mentions setting up an oil refinery and the passage of some new regulations. Authors do not follow up or examine how such measures can curb the so-called Resource Curse. 

As I note in all my oil related publications and research which are quite extensive, there are 2 sides: Oil mismanagement and attempts to reduce mismanagement. By building oil refineries, Uganda becomes one of the first with Ghana to build refineries before oil production. This is important to value addition, monetization and skills development plus local content & local participation. 

This piece has some important original ideas about Uganda's new oil sector, but the ideas and methodology used and conclusions  are so one sided/biased to defeat or undermine usefulness of these data/information and indeed the whole paper

There are a large number of prolific African authors that have looked at oil in  Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea  and Ghana, but their work which critiques  conventional /  orthodox resource curse are not cited or used to evaluate the REAL LIFE VALIDITY and appropriateness of the theory itself and its weaknesses when applied to Africa without being careful about its limitations, biases and one-sidedness

Atuthors should revise their review of the application of the resource curse theory and its limitations and incorporate in paper what good things Uganda is doing or can do to improve managing its oil such as set up good laws, build oil refineries, get good leases/contracts and enhance local content--employment and local business participation.

You have good, highly valuable original data and info, use them in a non-biased manner and not just go along with conventional  theories. Who are the oil companies, local or national, European, Chinese, American or Ugandan. The Road Construction companies, Ugandan or not, all these are important but not explained and in cases not specified

Author Response

Thank you for taking time to give us constructive comments on our paper. We have responded to all of them.

We hope all the issues addressed will meet your expectations.

Thank you,

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The resource curse is one of the most interesting phenomenas in social sciences. The article takes an interesting but not original perspective. The literature about regional resource curse is weak and the methods chosen are poorly presented.  

Some minimal context about the region would improve the article (a map). The conclusions are extremely obvious.  

Author Response

Thank you very much for taking off time to review our work,we are very grateful for that.We hope all the issues you raised will meet your expectations.

Thank you

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Here are my comments suggestions on the paper.

The Revisions are satisfactory and paper reads much better.

I have 3 Final  Comments/Suggestions :

1. In the Introduction, I will delete word ENDEMIC before corruption. Uganda started oil exploration and is barely a year or 2 into actual production, so any corruption cant be correctly labeled  endemic.

2. Intro paragraph 2, as Ghana's case has demonstrated at times its multinational oil companies that do not allow full transparency. So authors need to show who is refusing to release public info about Oil in Uganda. It may not be only the Government.

3. With respect to Oil and Gas, Authors mention Nigeria and Niger. Where lies Ghana? Ghana is useful for showing the long, difficult road to full transparency and better management of oil resources. It shows, its not always corruption and conflict ( See K Panford Book Palgrave 2017, Africa Today Articles Spring and Winter 2014 and Ghana Policy Journal Dec 2010) for details of the Ghana Case. 

4. Lastly with Ghana's Oil Laws including those for Revenue Managemt Act 815 2011 and Petroleum Commission plus PIAC of 2011, Ghana shows possible alternatives to the resource curse and the idea that it does not have to leade INEVITABLY to a curse ( for details see Panford Citations above, Franklin Obeng Odoom and others who show, eg., that Nigeria's Dutch Disease does not automatically occur all over Africa: Ghana still has a diversified Economic Base Albeit all agriculture and other  commodities-- cocoa, gold diamond, timber, gold, and oyther new traditional exports-- pineapples, shear butter.

I think considering points I have raised above in final revisions make paper better.

Author Response

The revised point by point is hereby attached.We thank you for your valuable time.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx