NALI staff to join govt payroll after years of casual employment — PS Kakande

KAMPALA - Staff at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) are set to be included on the government payroll.

Hajj Yunus Kakande, the Permanent Secretary (PS) Office of the President Permanent Secretary disclosed this during an engagement with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC/Central), chaired by Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi on Wednesday, May 7, 2025.

The discussion centred on the Auditor General’s (AG) report for the year ending June 2024, where it was discovered that a significant number of employees at NALI were supposedly working on a casual basis. Something, contrary to Section 12 (a-h) of the Uganda Public Service Standing Orders, which mandates that a valid employment contract must include mutual assent to all terms.

Sarah Opendi, Tororo Woman MP during the committee meeting. (All Photos by Miriam Namutebi)

“I noted that NALI had a total of 93 civilian employees who were paid a total annual salary of sh354 million during the year. However, their contracts were not provided to confirm if they were paid as per the terms of their contracts. Lack of employment contracts is irregular and demotivates staff due to uncertainty surrounding their employment status,” AG observed.

However, while addressing MPs today, Kakande attributed the anomaly to administrative changes that have taken place over the years.

“The National Leadership Institute was under the Movement Secretariat, which was disbanded. Then it crossed to defence ministry. Later on, recently, the President directed that it go to the office of the President. When it came with staff who were non-military and military, that’s why you find that even up to the head is a military officer,” he explained.

“We have not been sitting down, we have been trying to formalise their appointment, we have created a structure already, taken it to public service ministry, which has already approved it. Actually, we are in the process of submitting all these names to public service commission for formalisation. That’s where we are.   

However, Muwanga Kivumbi, the committee chairperson, was not impressed with Kakande's explanations. He argued that, according to the Public Finance Management Act of 2015, entities are required to transfer to other votes along with their funding.

“If a function has been under the defence ministry, when it moved to the office of the President, the budgetary allocation to it must necessarily move. You don’t just move functions without moving the money. But you are reasoning like they moved the function, but they never moved the money,” Kivumbi probed.

“When it moved from defence to us, it came with a mere sh50 million until we appealed, and later on it was given sh1 billion. Every quarter, we were transferring sh250m. Again, in the other financial year, we pleaded with finance ministry, and they gave us a budget of up to sh2.5b. That is the money they have for operations. By the time the auditors went there, we were trying to see how to formalise the staff whom they were just paying allowances,” Kakande responded.

He further explained that it was at this point that the Office of the Presidency decided to first establish a structure, a process that required the involvement of the Ministry of Public Service. Which, as part of its workings, is supposed to conduct a headcount on the ground to verify the staff’s credentials, a task that took them nearly a year to complete.

“We have finished it. This February, that’s when we were told to go ahead and formalise their appointment, and they get a salary,” he added.

Muwanga Kivumbi, Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, chairs a meeting on May 7, 2025. (Credit: Miriam Namutebi)

Public service letter

Correspondence reviewed by New Vision Online shows that earlier this year, Victor Leku, writing on behalf of the Public Service Permanent Secretary, informed Kakande that he had taken stock of the issue.

“In order to enable the ministry to take action on your request and regularise staff at the institute, you are requested to provide the following information: a wage performance report from July 2024 to date and a costed list of vacant positions proposed for recruitment,” Leku stated.

Fast forward, the committee chairperson, Muwanga Kivumbi, requested Kakande to table a status report. Kyamuswa County MP Moses Kabuusu, the MP (FDC), emphasised that formalising the employees is crucial to prevent MPs from being on the receiving end of trainers at the institute.

“This must be the institute where members of parliament go for mchaka mchaka (military drills). Hajj Yunus Kakande is putting our members in the hands of people grumbling about having no employment contracts. They can kick somebody in a very serious way and expose them to bodily injuries. Because they have unresolved issues,” Kabuusu warned. “Do these include staff who cook food in Kyankwanzi?” Muwanga chipped in.  

In response, Hajj Yunus Kakande explained that the affected staff are a mix of cleaners and cooks. He clarified that they receive allowances and are not as badly off as presumed.

“I am saying that by the end of this calendar year, these people will have contracts,” he assured.