Fagil Mandy to IGG: I will not resign

By Francis Kagolo             
                                                    
The embattled chairperson of the national examinations board (UNEB), Fagil Mandy, has vowed not to quit his job following the inspectorate of government report that said he is incompetent.

 Speaking to New Vision on Monday, Mandy said resigning is out of his list of options, unless forced by the President.
“When I read the report I said this is good food. It talks about Fagil Mandy yet UNEB is a very big institution!” he said. “I cannot resign until the President tells me.”

  The Inspector General of Government (IGG), Justice Irene Mulyagonja, last week released her probe report into allegations of mismanaging the search process to replace UNEB executive secretary Matthew Bukenya.

Mulyagonja ordered Education Minister Jessica Alupo to terminate the recruitment process after it was discovered that Mandy flouted the previous exercise to favour John Bosco Ntangaare who had reportedly scored best in the interviews with 76.5%.

The report shows that Ntangaare’s eventual win was a result of Mandy’s calculated move.

Investigators discovered evidence that the two met outside the interview room on the first day of the interviews and talked for some time. Possibly as a result of the chat, Ntangaare was the only candidate who managed to answer a “particular question” that Mandy set for the interviews.

Yet prior to this, already Mandy had irregularly recruited someone and formed an irregular committee outside the UNEB appointments and disciplinary committee to handle part of the recruitment exercise.

In a report dated March 17, Mulyagonja said Mandy lacks principles of corporate governance and his “temperament and methods of management are not suitable for the position he holds.”

“He rubs people the wrong way and could potentially cause a total breakdown of the examinations body,” the seven-page report reads in part. “The functions performed by UNEB demand a lot of care and a definite audit trail, which is obviously incompatible with Mandy’s style of oversight.”

According to the report, Mandy’s past antecedents as acting commissioner education and the findings about his conduct revealed by the two-month investigation depict a glaring mismatch of his character and competencies with the UNEB chairmanship.

The IGG asked the minister of education and sports to “advise the President to consider reviewing his decision of appointing Mandy as the chairperson of UNEB.”