Forestry body to undergo mass restructuring

By Gerald Tenywa

Tension has gripped staff at the National Forestry Authority (NFA) as plans to re-structure the body mandated to protect the country’s forests gets underway.

The restructuring will affect about 30% of the staff who will either be dropped or relocated to the field.

According to the authority’s chairman of the board of trustees, Professor Mukhadasi Buyinza, most of the staff at the headquarters is to be deployed in the field or dropped after phasing out some of the posts.

The biggest causalities will come after the merging of the directorate of natural forests and the directorate of plantations to create the directorate of field operations. This, he said, means there will be work for only one director after the merger.

“We have cases in the field where there is a sector manager for plantations sitting in the same office with a sector manager overseeing natural forests. One person can manage natural forests and also oversee plantations,” said Buyinza.

Also, the post of specialist and sector manager is to be phased out or merged and that most of the specialists will either be deployed to the field or dropped.

At the same time, the longstanding disparity in remuneration between the staff undertaking non-core forestry work and core forestry staff is going to be harmonized, according to Buyinza.

NFA employs 300 permanent staff and also offers work on contract and casual labourers, according to Buyinza.