Police probes UNRA recruitments

By Chris Kiwawulo

Police is investigating circumstances under which 16 employees of the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) were recruited.

According to Grace Akullo, the director Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Directorate (CIID), UNRA irregularly recruited the 16 people early this year.

“You are requested to provide the following information/ documentation to enable the Police to understand circumstances surrounding the alleged irregular recruitments,” reads Akullo’s July 12 letter to UNRA.

Those whose recruitment is contested are Lawrence Pario, Isaac Balamu (manager bridges and structures), Robert Mutyaba (project engineer - assets management), Brian Davis Muhwezi (transport planning officer), Rashid K. Kamoga and Agnes Tundu (human resource offi cers).

Others are Enock Kalema (procurement manager - nworks and services), Steven Mugisha (procurement manager – goods and supplies), Herman Kabanda (procurement officer – works and services), Norah Acan (procurement officer – goods and supplies) and Allen Namale (procurement officer – goods and services).

They also include Pamella Evelyn Asiimwe, David Claude Anyoti, Peter Mbabazi and David Higobero (procurement assistants) and Kenneth Kaddu, an electrical engineer.

Among the documents detectives want to scrutinise are UNRA’s approved structure, approval for filling the posts, copies of adverts for the posts held by the named persons, list of applicants, copies of job applications and names of the persons who shortlisted the candidates.

The detectives also want the documents showing date(s) of interviews and venue, names and contacts of the interviewing panel, list of interviewed candidates with their ranking, copies of appointment letters, copies of job acceptance letters and salary and allowances paid to each of them.

They also want the recruits’ personal fi les, copy of UNRA’s Act detailing the prerogative of appointing officers, approved and signed minutes of oral interviews of candidates, UNRA board minutes/ decisions on the recruitment exercise all the information relevant to the exercise.

In April, works and transport minister Abraham Byandala expressed his disappointment to UNRA’s executive director, Peter Ssebanakitta, about the way some authority employees were recruited without his input, in the absence of a board of directors.

“With regard to recruitments in UNRA, this is unacceptable. In my view, you took it on yourself and completely neglected the minister. You claim to have written to me on February 9, 2012 and attached a copy of that letter containing a stamp from my office and you did not write a reminder before doing the recruitments,” Byandala wrote.

Dan Alinange, the UNRA spokesperson, said they had responded to Police’s request.

“We gave them all the information they asked for.”

On Byandala’s complaint, Alinange said: “The minister does not recruit our staff. It is the board that does. The old board recruited the staff and then its term expired. The recruitment is in contest because we have a new board.”

Byandala said although he was not the one who had asked the Police to investigate the matter, he was concerned by the way the recruitment was done.

“I appoint the board to do things on my behalf. But the board was not fully constituted at the time UNRA recruited those staff members. Some of the members’ terms had expired. That is why I said the right thing for UNRA was to revert to me,” he said.

The Solicitor General also pinned UNRA, saying management made a mistake in appointing the 16 workers without the approval of the board, and recommended that those recruited be sacked.

“Management of UNRA offered appointment letters to sixteen persons during the period when the board was not fully constituted. By doing so, the management acted outside the scope of its authority. Further, the fact that the minister’s input was not sought made the management’s actions improper,” a letter signed by Patricia Habu, for the Solicitor General, read in part.