An attempt by Irene Muwanguzi to reclaim her job as managing director of Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC) has created uncertainty and tension at the government-owned corporation.
Muwanguzi was appointed UPPC managing director on December 1, 2014 but her appointment was terminated by the board after six months of probation on grounds of incompetence and insubordination.
She was later reinstated by Frank Tumwebaze, the then minister for the presidency, on grounds that her (Muwanguzi’s) employment had been unjustly terminated.
Tumwebaze based his action on the report by Irene Mulyagonja, the inspector general of government (IGG), which cleared Muwanguzi of any wrongdoing.
However, the board went to court which threw her out. But in a strange twist of events, The Observer has learnt, Muwanguzi has been quietly lobbying to be reappointed to the position that has remained vacant since her ouster.
This has created anxiety among some senior managers at the Entebbe-based facility, especially those who were at the forefront of fighting her.
Speaking to The Observer on Monday, Muwanguzi insisted that she is still the rightful holder of the office.
“I am on the job; I am still the MD of UPPC only that I am no longer operating from Entebbe. The minister only appointed a caretaker of the MD’s office because I was blocked from accessing it,” Muwanguzi said.
Although she no longer receives her entitlements as MD, she said she still transacts business on behalf of the corporation. “If someone asks about UPPC, I will speak to them in that capacity. I have been attending various meetings as MD of UPPC, and I will continue doing so until I receive an official communication from the minister,” Muwanguzi said.
In the meantime, she has petitioned court for a review of the order that threw her out office because she was not given a fair hearing.
“I was illegally moved, I don’t know whether the judge was deceived that he did not apply the rule of natural justice because I wasn’t heard, but he [Justice Steven Musota] has graciously accepted to hear my side; I’m still holding on until the case in court is concluded,” she said.
IGG BLAMED
Meanwhile, a whistle-blower has anonymously written to Esther Mbayo, the minister for the presidency, detailing why Muwanguzi should not be reappointed. The dossier is also copied to Grace Akullo, the head of the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate (CIID) and the IGG.
“My writing of this [letter] as a concerned citizen is based on evidence in [the attached] documents [that show cases] of abuse of office, disregard of procedures, fraud, misappropriation of funds and disrespect of governing laws,” the dossier reads in part.
In the dossier, the whistleblower blames Mulyagonja for overturning the board’s decision to sack Muwanguzi, which action, the whistleblower says, led to loss of taxpayers’ money.
“It is disappointing that the board’s decision [to fire Muwanguzi] was interfered with by the IGG who ordered for her [reinstatement] and in away, the corporation continued dying to date,” the whistleblower wrote.
“It is my humble appeal to all concerned government agencies, those I have written to, and those I don’t know, to pick interest in this matter,” the whistleblower further wrote.
To prove the claim that Muwanguzi flouted management procedures, the whistleblower attached correspondences between the corporation’s finance and administration manager, Lawrence George Nuwagira, and George Ococ, the former board chairman, in which Nuwagira raised questions over some allowances to Muwanguzi.
In one of the correspondences dated March 10, 2015, Nuwagira wondered why Muwanguzi wanted to be paid allowances that were outside her employment contract such as a Shs 5.2m for repairs of her personal vehicle and a sitting allowance of Shs 190,000.
Nuwagira’s letter to Ococ followed earlier correspondences between him [Nuwagira] and Muwanguzi in which the latter refused to pay his MD some of the allowances.
But in a January 29, 2015 letter, Muwanguzi wrote to Nuwagira pointing him to Section 9 of the UPPC Act that entitles her to the same sitting allowance as other board members. Other board members, she said, are paid per sitting, not monthly.
“Using the above references and in the circumstances that the honoraria is not applicable, you are required to consider payment of sitting allowance to the MD at the same rate as the board members under the circumstances that the MD is equally a board member by virtue of the voting right,” Muwanguzi wrote to Nuwagira.
CAR HIRE
While she is accused of using the corporation’s funds to maintain her car, Muwanguzi in a February 6, 2015 letter to Nuwagira defended her actions.
“Section 7 of the managing director’s contract of employment provides that “in addition to the consolidated salary, you shall receive mileage worth Shs 1 m per month to facilitate your travels within Kampala and Entebbe,” she wrote.
She reminded Nuwagira that she was also entitled to a chauffeur-driven vehicle and since the corporation did not have a car attached to her office, it had to hire a well-maintained and fuelled car for her.
“The case at hand is that I am using my own vehicle which is supposed to be hired, fuelled and maintained by the corporation so that it is in good working condition,” Muwanguzi wrote.
While she had advised Nuwagira against taxing her mileage allowance, the finance chief went ahead and made tax deductions since the Income Tax Act does not exonerate taxation of consolidated monthly mileage.
The whistleblower listed several other actions by Muwanguzi such as the recruitment of an executive assistant and an assistant manager in charge of printing, actions that are deemed to have been inconsistent with the corporation’s human resource manual.
REVAMP
Mbayo told The Observer she was yet to receive the dossier but said she would study and act upon it once it gets to her desk. This, she said, could be part of the problems that have dogged the government printery for some years.
“There were so many problems but we are revamping it,” Mbayo said without delving into the details.
The Observer, however, understands that part of the efforts to revamp the corporation are the ongoing negotiations for a joint venture with a German firm to make UPPC a one-stop centre for government’s security printing.
Last September, Mbayo appointed George Mugerwa, a commissioner for monitoring and evaluation in the office of the president, as the corporation’s acting MD but the position is expected to be advertised soon once the newly-constituted board of directors led by Vincent Musubira settles in.
sadabkk@observer.ug