The story behind Kazibwe’s sacking
HER sympathisers say that she is a very hardworking woman. And there’s no doubt about that. The only problem is that the Inspector General of Government (IGG) is now investigating Dr. Specioza Wandira Kazibwe on whether she mismanaged and abused office
By John Semakula and Elizabeth Namazzi
HER sympathisers say that she is a very hardworking woman. And there’s no doubt about that. The only problem is that the Inspector General of Government (IGG) is now investigating Dr. Specioza Wandira Kazibwe on whether she mismanaged and abused office when she was in charge of the Microfinance Support Centre (MSC). The was the board chairperson since June 2008.
The former Vice-President, who benefited from the State scholarship of sh2.5b for her PhD studies, has scored some achievements at MSC like doubling its clientele since 2008. However, she stands to lose all those gains if the allegations of financial impropriety and mismanagement against her are proven true.
Saturday Vision talked to one MSC board member and an employee on conditions of anonymity and uncovered the story behind the suspension of Kazibwe and her board.
Kazibwe’s Accusations
Last week, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic development, Maria Kiwanuka, swung her axe for the first time since she took office. Kazibwe was among her first victims.
Kiwanuka suspended her and members of the MSC Board of Directors, until the IGG completes his investigations into mismanagement of the centre.
The minister also suspended the new Executive Director, Iggy Musaali Rwabukuku and reinstated the company secretary and the manager legal services, who had been sacked by the board.
The members of the board included Tim Lwanga, a former ethics minister, Mutebi Kityo, former Mawokota South MP, Charles Ogol from the Ministry of Finance, Twino Musinguzi and Rwabukuku.
Kazibwe’s board was created by President Yoweri Museveni in 2007 after he discovered that the Government’s Boona Bagaggawale funds through MSC had benefitted very few people since 2003.
The board’s role was to ensure a quick execution of the programme through MSC, which was to deliver funds to SACCOS to promote cooperatives and enhance household incomes.
However, not only has MSC turned out to be an eating ground for failed politicians, it has also failed to crank up the financial base of the many SACCOS in Uganda.
Power struggles
Saturday Vision discovered that money, power struggles and greed were hampering MSC’s fight against poverty.
Charles Byanyima, the former executive director, told Saturday Vision that when Kazibwe’s board was appointed, it usurped the work tha was supposed to be done by the staff. “The board’s role was to set policies and procedures for management, but instead, it started doing work that staff was doing,†he said.
However, a former board member defended it, saying they decided to join the mobilisation of masses to speed up the rate at which the funds trickled to the beneficiaries.
“The management had contracted Uganda Cooperative Saving and Credit Union (UCSCU) to carry out the mobilisation, but the process was very slow. UCSCU lacked funds and logistics and was slow. We had to come in to rectify the problem.â€
According to a source in MSC, the former executive director, Byanyima, did not like the board’s interference and would sometimes complain in the hearing of staff. When Kazibwe got wind of this, the stage was set for a power struggle at MSC.
Fight over privileges
A board member said the conflict between them and the staff began when the board cut staff privileges.
“From the time MSC was founded, employees carried home huge salaries and allowances,†he said.
“Each employee got a monthly package for 13 months a year and gratuity of 25%.â€
The gratuity was calculated on a monthly basis, allowing it to accumulate throughout the year. Staff loans were not paid back on a monthly basis, but on the accumulated gratuity at the end of the year.
None of them took the annual paid leave. Many staff who applied for it reportedly remained in office and went out to the field to earn huge allowances. Others never applied for leave and worked for years without rest,†he said.
He says the board decided to revise the human resource manual and reduced the privileges of the employees, to reduce the operational costs that stood at sh1.5b per year.
“We reduced gratuity from 25% to 5%, scrapped the payment of the 13th month and halted loans. We advised staff to form a Sacco.â€
The changes could have left the employees very bitter with the board, because while the board cut the employees’ benefits, it retained huge allowances and privileges.
The previleges of the board
The board members had an allowance of sh500,000 per seating. Instead of meeting once every four months, they were reportedly seating more regularly and signing for more.
Sources at MSC allege that Kazibwe got an office at the centre in Kololo, which she frequented in order to get her daily allowance of sh500,000 even when she was not on official duty.
As a board chairperson, she did not need to have an office at the centre. The board she led is also accused of meeting monthly to draw allowances, instead of the statutory quarterly meetings.
According to a letter signed by David Makumbi, the director of Ombudsman affairs in the IGG’s office, Kazibwe drew her allowance even when she simply went to check for her personal e-mails or do private work.
She was so serious about this allowances that, “on days when she failed to make it to MSC, she would call a messenger with orders to sign for the money on her behalf,†the staff member further disclosed.
The IGG is also investigating allegations that she used to draw funds from MSC for foreign trips, which she did not take. One employee alleged that among Kazibwe’s foreign trips was one to Harvard University to conclude her studies. MSC would foot her air tickets and accommodation bills.
Rwabukuku’s woes
Rwabukuku was a board member, but resigned to take up the post of deputy executive director to replace Byanyima.
The IGG is investigating allegations that Byanyima was sacked irregularly and his replacement did not follow the relevant guidelines.
Rwabukuku reportedly lacks the required academic qualifications for the job and his appointment from the board to a senior management position is considered unethical.
According to the IGG’s letter, two positions of deputy executive directors were allegedly created to cater for Rwabukuku, who had failed the interviews for the position of deputy executive director. The best candidate, according to five management experts at Uganda Management Institute (UMI), was Wilson Wamatsembe who scored 75.5% against Rwabukuku’s 65.75%. The report says Rwabukuku also lacks a first degree and only has a certificate in banking.
The experts said his movement from board level to operations would give him adjustment problems.
Rwabukuku was nevertheless appointed and is said to have served a probation period of only three months, which is said to be irregular.
However, a board member explained that the final decision over the best candidate was supposed to be taken by the board, not UMI. “We gave it to Rwabukuku because we thought he was more focused and fresh. MSC needed a person with fresh drive, but Wamatsembe had been an employee for 10 years, which meant that he had no fresh ideas.â€
Why Charles Byanyima was sacked
Before he was allegedly sacked, Byanyima had applied for five days leave to organise a party for his daughter.
Kazibwe discovered that he had 110 days of pending leave and ordered him to take all his leave days.
The staff said as soon as Byanyima started his leave, the board promoted Rwabukuku to acting executive director and instigated an investigation into Byanyima’s work.
However, a board member rejects this as untrue. He says Byanyima allegedly failed to implement the Management Information System (MIS), which the board had decided to install to enable MSC management monitor the activities at its 14 centres across the country.
The project was funded by development partners to the tune of over sh1b.
External auditors from Kenya discovered that the company had lost millions of shillings. Byanyima was asked to account for the money and he reportedly failed. The board decide to sack him, but he resigned before it could act.
Byanyima called the allegations rubbish, but declined to defend himself, saying he did not want to start a media war.
The sh2bn loan
The IGG is also investigating the allegation that the two employees who were reinstated by the minister, were unfairly dismissed because they blocked sh2b which Kazibwe wanted to call urgently for a shadowy Busoga People’s Forum, a political organisation she headed during presidential campaigns.
It is said Kazibwe wanted an urgent board meeting to approve the money and asked the company secretary, Dorcas Apita Angom, to call the board. Angom refused, arguing that the board’s tenure of office had expired in April, and so it was illegally executing its duties.
Kazibwe then directed the acting director to call the meeting. But the manager legal services, Mariam Ndibuuza, refused to write the minutes.
The board then recommended serious disciplinary action against the two and the executive director suspended them.
But the IGG has recommended that they return to office because they were illegally suspended. The minister has called them back.
Recommendations
The board member proposes that for MSC to do its work better, contracts of all the employees who have served for 10 years should not be renewed.
He also asked the IGG to listen to staff and former board members.
in order to understand the truth. Those found guilty, he pleaded, should be punished and those who are innocent, exonerated.
HER sympathisers say that she is a very hardworking woman. And there’s no doubt about that. The only problem is that the Inspector General of Government (IGG) is now investigating Dr. Specioza Wandira Kazibwe on whether she mismanaged and abused office when she was in charge of the Microfinance Support Centre (MSC). The was the board chairperson since June 2008.
The former Vice-President, who benefited from the State scholarship of sh2.5b for her PhD studies, has scored some achievements at MSC like doubling its clientele since 2008. However, she stands to lose all those gains if the allegations of financial impropriety and mismanagement against her are proven true.
Saturday Vision talked to one MSC board member and an employee on conditions of anonymity and uncovered the story behind the suspension of Kazibwe and her board.
Kazibwe’s Accusations
Last week, the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic development, Maria Kiwanuka, swung her axe for the first time since she took office. Kazibwe was among her first victims.
Kiwanuka suspended her and members of the MSC Board of Directors, until the IGG completes his investigations into mismanagement of the centre.
The minister also suspended the new Executive Director, Iggy Musaali Rwabukuku and reinstated the company secretary and the manager legal services, who had been sacked by the board.
The members of the board included Tim Lwanga, a former ethics minister, Mutebi Kityo, former Mawokota South MP, Charles Ogol from the Ministry of Finance, Twino Musinguzi and Rwabukuku.
Kazibwe’s board was created by President Yoweri Museveni in 2007 after he discovered that the Government’s Boona Bagaggawale funds through MSC had benefitted very few people since 2003.
The board’s role was to ensure a quick execution of the programme through MSC, which was to deliver funds to SACCOS to promote cooperatives and enhance household incomes.
However, not only has MSC turned out to be an eating ground for failed politicians, it has also failed to crank up the financial base of the many SACCOS in Uganda.
Power struggles
Saturday Vision discovered that money, power struggles and greed were hampering MSC’s fight against poverty.
Charles Byanyima, the former executive director, told Saturday Vision that when Kazibwe’s board was appointed, it usurped the work tha was supposed to be done by the staff. “The board’s role was to set policies and procedures for management, but instead, it started doing work that staff was doing,†he said.
However, a former board member defended it, saying they decided to join the mobilisation of masses to speed up the rate at which the funds trickled to the beneficiaries.
“The management had contracted Uganda Cooperative Saving and Credit Union (UCSCU) to carry out the mobilisation, but the process was very slow. UCSCU lacked funds and logistics and was slow. We had to come in to rectify the problem.â€
According to a source in MSC, the former executive director, Byanyima, did not like the board’s interference and would sometimes complain in the hearing of staff. When Kazibwe got wind of this, the stage was set for a power struggle at MSC.
Fight over privileges
A board member said the conflict between them and the staff began when the board cut staff privileges.
“From the time MSC was founded, employees carried home huge salaries and allowances,†he said.
“Each employee got a monthly package for 13 months a year and gratuity of 25%.â€
The gratuity was calculated on a monthly basis, allowing it to accumulate throughout the year. Staff loans were not paid back on a monthly basis, but on the accumulated gratuity at the end of the year.
None of them took the annual paid leave. Many staff who applied for it reportedly remained in office and went out to the field to earn huge allowances. Others never applied for leave and worked for years without rest,†he said.
He says the board decided to revise the human resource manual and reduced the privileges of the employees, to reduce the operational costs that stood at sh1.5b per year.
“We reduced gratuity from 25% to 5%, scrapped the payment of the 13th month and halted loans. We advised staff to form a Sacco.â€
The changes could have left the employees very bitter with the board, because while the board cut the employees’ benefits, it retained huge allowances and privileges.
The previleges of the board
The board members had an allowance of sh500,000 per seating. Instead of meeting once every four months, they were reportedly seating more regularly and signing for more.
Sources at MSC allege that Kazibwe got an office at the centre in Kololo, which she frequented in order to get her daily allowance of sh500,000 even when she was not on official duty.
As a board chairperson, she did not need to have an office at the centre. The board she led is also accused of meeting monthly to draw allowances, instead of the statutory quarterly meetings.
According to a letter signed by David Makumbi, the director of Ombudsman affairs in the IGG’s office, Kazibwe drew her allowance even when she simply went to check for her personal e-mails or do private work.
She was so serious about this allowances that, “on days when she failed to make it to MSC, she would call a messenger with orders to sign for the money on her behalf,†the staff member further disclosed.
The IGG is also investigating allegations that she used to draw funds from MSC for foreign trips, which she did not take. One employee alleged that among Kazibwe’s foreign trips was one to Harvard University to conclude her studies. MSC would foot her air tickets and accommodation bills.
Rwabukuku’s woes
Rwabukuku was a board member, but resigned to take up the post of deputy executive director to replace Byanyima.
The IGG is investigating allegations that Byanyima was sacked irregularly and his replacement did not follow the relevant guidelines.
Rwabukuku reportedly lacks the required academic qualifications for the job and his appointment from the board to a senior management position is considered unethical.
According to the IGG’s letter, two positions of deputy executive directors were allegedly created to cater for Rwabukuku, who had failed the interviews for the position of deputy executive director. The best candidate, according to five management experts at Uganda Management Institute (UMI), was Wilson Wamatsembe who scored 75.5% against Rwabukuku’s 65.75%. The report says Rwabukuku also lacks a first degree and only has a certificate in banking.
The experts said his movement from board level to operations would give him adjustment problems.
Rwabukuku was nevertheless appointed and is said to have served a probation period of only three months, which is said to be irregular.
However, a board member explained that the final decision over the best candidate was supposed to be taken by the board, not UMI. “We gave it to Rwabukuku because we thought he was more focused and fresh. MSC needed a person with fresh drive, but Wamatsembe had been an employee for 10 years, which meant that he had no fresh ideas.â€
Why Charles Byanyima was sacked
Before he was allegedly sacked, Byanyima had applied for five days leave to organise a party for his daughter.
Kazibwe discovered that he had 110 days of pending leave and ordered him to take all his leave days.
The staff said as soon as Byanyima started his leave, the board promoted Rwabukuku to acting executive director and instigated an investigation into Byanyima’s work.
However, a board member rejects this as untrue. He says Byanyima allegedly failed to implement the Management Information System (MIS), which the board had decided to install to enable MSC management monitor the activities at its 14 centres across the country.
The project was funded by development partners to the tune of over sh1b.
External auditors from Kenya discovered that the company had lost millions of shillings. Byanyima was asked to account for the money and he reportedly failed. The board decide to sack him, but he resigned before it could act.
Byanyima called the allegations rubbish, but declined to defend himself, saying he did not want to start a media war.
The sh2bn loan
The IGG is also investigating the allegation that the two employees who were reinstated by the minister, were unfairly dismissed because they blocked sh2b which Kazibwe wanted to call urgently for a shadowy Busoga People’s Forum, a political organisation she headed during presidential campaigns.
It is said Kazibwe wanted an urgent board meeting to approve the money and asked the company secretary, Dorcas Apita Angom, to call the board. Angom refused, arguing that the board’s tenure of office had expired in April, and so it was illegally executing its duties.
Kazibwe then directed the acting director to call the meeting. But the manager legal services, Mariam Ndibuuza, refused to write the minutes.
The board then recommended serious disciplinary action against the two and the executive director suspended them.
But the IGG has recommended that they return to office because they were illegally suspended. The minister has called them back.
Recommendations
The board member proposes that for MSC to do its work better, contracts of all the employees who have served for 10 years should not be renewed.
He also asked the IGG to listen to staff and former board members.
in order to understand the truth. Those found guilty, he pleaded, should be punished and those who are innocent, exonerated.