A war of Houthi rebels vs Saudi Arabia magnitude between staff of the Uganda Road Fund (URF) and the board Chairperson continues to ravage the government entity over the recruitment process of the Executive Director.
According to a petition by members of staff addressed to Matia Kasaija, the Minister Of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Board Chairperson, Ms. Merian Sebunya Kyomugisha and Board Member, Ms. Rosemary Owino are accused of a cocktail of ills with the top most being mismanaging the whole ED recruitment process with intent to create turmoil at the fund.
“Hon. Minister, we the staff of Uganda Road Fund (URF) refer you to Section 14 (3) of the URF Act 2008, “Functions of the Board”, which states that “the Board shall be responsible and accountable to the Minister [of Finance] for ensuring efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and propriety in – (a) the utilization of public funds under this Act, (b) the conduct of its business; and (c) the operations and activities of the Fund,” the petition dated September 9th 2019 reads in part.
They cite revenge and bias in accusing Merian and co of mismanaging the recruitment of the next Road Fund ED.
It adds, “Cognisant of the aforementioned clause, we the staff of URF are extremely concerned by the misconduct of the Board Chairperson, Ms. Merian Sebunya Kyomugisha and Board Member, Ms. Rosemary Owino in the ongoing gross mismanagement of the recruitment of the next Executive Director (ED) of URF; and hereby seek your urgent intervention to mitigate the abysmal Corporate Governance.”
Their petition follows another addressed to the minister in November 2018 in which the staff raised the issue with Kasaija.
Following their concerns last year, the government ombudsman commenced a probe of Merian Sebunya Kyomugisha that resulted in her partial suspension in December 2018.
“Hon. Minister, the staff of URF on 27th November 2018 wrote to you a letter with ref: URF/ED/SM/025/18 (attached – Annex 1); in which we highlighted to you the abysmal Corporate Governance failures within the URF Board emanating from the gross misconduct of the Board Chairperson Ms. Merian Sebunya Kyomugisha supported by Ms. Rosemary Owino (Board Member). You subsequently stopped the Chairperson from undertaking any further Corporate Governance activities at URF,” the petition reads.
Merian returned to office in July on the advice of the Finance minister who is the only person permitted by law to fire and disappoint the URF ED.
However, the URF staff claim that since her return, the board chairperson has done nothing but engineer a revenge process to bias the whole recruitment process of the next ED.
With the current ED’s tenure winding, the staff further claim that Sebunya as the Board Chairperson is using this time to create turmoil at the fund. Michael Odongo Okune is the current ED and his term ends next month.
While appearing before parliament in April this year, Odongo acknowledged conflicts among board members particularly over recruitment, procurement among others, which have affected the performance of the fund in the past one year.
They cite an instance where she rushed to place an advert in the press for a new ED without consulting the minister in accordance with the law.
“Hon. Minister, in pursuit of revenge against URF staff, the Board Chairperson rushed and held a non-quorate 89th (special) Board meeting on 23rd August 2019 and subsequently illegally sanctioned a misleading advert that appeared in the New Vision newspaper of 6th September, 2019 page 28 (attached – Annex 4) to recruit the next ED; without consulting your office and all relevant stakeholders. Furthermore, Ms. Rosemary Owino (Board member) undertook URF procurement officer roles and during the aforementioned non-quorate board meeting phoned New Vision newspaper to book advertising space without a Board Minute and breaking all procurement procedures! The misleading advert which has already led URF to incur nugatory expenditure is devoid of technical expert input and is extremely fertile ground for litigation,” the staff’s petition adds.
The URF Act 2008 sets out the relevant qualifications/fields of expertise of the ED of URF / Secretary to Board as clearly stipulated in Sections 9 and 17 (2).
Merian did not consult the minister and key stakeholder ministries recognized in the URF Act 2008 (MoWT and MoLG).
They also accuse her of; Abuse of the URF Human Resource Manual, Misinformation and criminality in the Advert and adulterating educational and experience requirements of the position of the ED of URF, disregarding recommendations from the European Union Technical Assistance Team and Disregarding professional institution standards and statutory requirements among others.
URF staff have since put forward a list of demands they want the minister to back if normalcy is to return to the fund.
They want Merina to “her illegal and diluted advert so that a professionally prepared advert consistent with good Corporate Governance principles and in full compliance with URF Act 2008, URF Human Resources Manual, and Board Manual; and devoid of errors is issued. The existing advert is litigious and misleading.”
Rosemary Owino, a board member who has been accused of conspiring with Merian to devour the recruitment process should be withdrawn, according to one of the letter.
According to staff, the two do not “…possess the requisite recruitment proficiency. The recruitment of the next ED of URF should be handled by a competent authority commencing with internal candidates as per Section 5.8.4 of the URF Human Resources manual and Board minute 205/52/2015.”
The staff also want the IGG’s report on probe into the misconduct of Merian released and that the Inspectorate of Government should invoke provisions of the Whistleblowers Protection Act (Section 9) so that URF staff are protected from any further adverse actions from Merian.
Kasaija has also been asked to Invoke Sections 11 (3b & c) of the URF Act 2008; to ensure that road maintenance programs are not affected by the current poor Corporate Governance practices; and imminent litigation under Section 5 (2b) of the URF Act 2008.
