By John V Sserwaniko
Taking advantage of the once very powerful Allen Kagina’s increasingly weakening position, Works Minister Monica Azuba Ntege recently summoned the UNRA governing board and top management members for a meeting. The venue was her Ministry board room where she read the Riot Act to them. For unknown reasons, Kagina who for long has been understood to have a frosty relationship with Azuba didn’t attend but was represented by Lawrence Pario. Works Ministry sources say the other UNRA officials at the meeting included Corporate Affairs Director Edna Rugumayo, Legal Services Director Mary Kamuli Kutesa, Ag Procurement Director Esther Kusiima and Mr. William Tumwine, the Roads Authority’s wealthy Head of Policy & Board Affairs. Others in attendance were UNRA BoD Chairman Fred Jachan Omach, Eng Samson Bagonza, Laban Mbulamuko and Eng Dr Umaru Bagampadde.
WORKS MINISTRY TEAM;
Sources at the meeting told this news website that as she communicated what she said was the new cabinet position regarding UNRA’s future, the unusually very assertive Azuba was flanked by Works State Minister Gen Katumba Wamala, Transport State Minister Aggrey Bagiire and her PS Waiswa Baligeya. Other Works Ministry officials on her team were CTSI Godfrey Wandera, PXE /NR Alex Onen, ACE William Kabiiho and SAS Daniel Kalule. Sources say Kagina had premonition about the bad news Azuba was to deliver and skipped the meeting. Her blue eyed girl Esther Kusiima led the opening prayer at the start of the meeting. On that meeting day, Omach’s BOD was exactly one year and one week in office but this was the first time Azuba (who actually appointed them) was meeting them as a BoD to discuss UNRA business. This shows how important this interaction was. It should be recalled that (because of her renowned State House connections that have lately been cracking largely because of the efforts Dott Services guys have invested), Ms Kagina has always been perceived to be very contemptuous of her supposed supervisors namely the BoD and the Works Minister.
AZUBA’S MESSAGE;
At the start of the meeting, Azuba angrily protested the absence of Kagina and a few other BoD members insisting this was a very important meeting. It was a Monday and the very hot meeting began at 2pm and ended after 6pm when the clearly distraught UNRA team members drove out of the Workers Ministry heading to their homes. In her communication, Azuba noted she was aware of the enormous challenges under which the new BoD has been operating in the last one year (including having to superintend over an accounting officer who considers herself more powerful than the BoD/emphasis ours). Azuba repeatedly said “I’m very much aware of those challenges.”
WINDING UP UNRA;
In his famous letter last year to Premier Rugunda, the President showed disgust with Authorities/Agencies being too many, costly, duplicative and proposed mergers, scrapping of some and return of the mandate to mother ministries. And indeed in her meeting, Azuba hinted on the possibility of UNRA being among the Authorities facing disbandment. Her presentation implied that only the core UNRA staffers possessed with road works and engineering skills would be transferred to mother ministry while none core staffers would be compensated and sent home. In very unambiguous terms, Azuba told Kagina’s UNRA team that the entire Authority’s relevancy and structure was being reviewed and dictated how the Authority would be operating in the remaining period.
THE NEW ORDER;
Firstly she decreed that UNRA ED Kagina will be leading her team for meetings with her at least once in every 90 days (quarterly meetings). These meetings will enable her supervise the goings on at UNRA more closely. She is a political supervisor who is tired of being kept in the dark simply because the UNRA ED thinks she is too powerful to be supervised. Azuba then delivered the biggest point of the day and this was communicating the cabinet concerns that there is plenty of duplication between her Works ministry’s core mandate and what UNRA does. “I’m under instructions to institute a committee to study this duplication of duties,” Azuba announced as Kagina’s UNRA representatives pensively looked on. Reliable sources tell this news website that this Azuba Committee’s report will be Museveni’s polite way of telling Kagina “time up.” Azuba, whose unusual assertiveness shocked many at the meeting, also rebuked the UNRA management for “exceeding what cabinet considers appropriate staffing levels.” She read out examples of countries where similar Road Authorities operate with fewer number of staff and yet outputs are delivered more efficiently than Kagina’s overstaffed UNRA. “Consequently there is need to re-align these staffing levels,” Azuba was quoted as saying. Mind you these allegations of overstaffing are being made by the Minister at a time Kagina was still holding onto plans to recruit hundreds more to work for UNRA! This news website has established that this Azuba remark was the clearest signal of the impending job losses at UNRA where many staffers rightly fear they are going to be laid off as the Authority is scrapped and key engineering staffers are transferred to mother ministry. As they prepare for this staffing re-alignment, Azuba advised UNRA’s BoD and Management to benchmark on other regional countries and Road Authorities. She demanded that Kagina writes to her in the next three months “justifying” the continued duplication and employment of so many people at UNRA. We are told in the days after the Azuba meeting, UNRA staffers got leaks and cried out to Kagina seeking her assurances on the impending job losses. “Whereas she generally called for calmness like any other leader would, she couldn’t clearly dispel these fears,” said a source adding that many UNRA employees have since resorted to seeking jobs in other equally well-paying organizations. In the same meeting, Azuba had one or two good things to say about UNRA. For example, she (sarcastically) thanked management for finally complying with the President’s directive to re-instate China Railway No. 8 and Dott Services’ contracts. “She also rebuked UNRA management for taking controversial stands regarding the President’s directives on the 2 contractors without informing or consulting her as the sector minister,” Works ministry sources told this news website.
TIRED OF BEING SIDELINED;
Azuba ranted that it was wrong for UNRA management to think they can do without her political directions and guidance as the line minister. She said she was tired of being ambushed by media people, MPs and CSOs regarding UNRA’s excesses which Kagina never briefs her about. “The news reporters are right to ambush and ask me because I’m the sector minister and your immediate supervisor at the political level. They rightly expect me to be updated,” Azuba said as her audience nodded in approval. She reiterated that whereas she will be meeting Kagina and her management team every 90 days, the BoD should be ready to mandatorily meet her every 6 months. She also discouraged the idea of UNRA management bypassing her to directly deal with State House whenever there are completed roads to be commissioned by the President. As Katumba Wamala remarkably nodded in approval, Azuba also demanded for more involvement of her ministry personnel in the management of Axle loads and the penalties involved therein. She said the public concerns of penalties being too high had reached the President and could politically cost the NRM government at the next elections. She faulted UNRA management for poor maintenance of the already existing roads. In his response later on, Omach told her the maintenance budget had been diminishing hence leaving the UNRA management handicapped. Azuba also wondered why the UNRA management team always sidelines her ministry whenever they are invited for meetings at the Finance Ministry to discuss loans and financing agreements at Matia Kasaija’s Ministry. She has since interfaced with Kasaija to ensure the Works Ministry is always invited to such meetings. Azuba says this is good for harmony and transparency in the UNRA transactions.
CLIPPING KAGINA WINGS;
Azuba also decreed that going forward, whenever there are any roads to be commissioned it will be the Ministry of Works to invite guests and determine who attends. “UNRA will only meet the cost for the required logistics and expenses to be incurred for the event,” she said as UNRA bosses, some of whom are said to have political ambitions for 2021, pensively looked on. She also promised to be exemplary on the transparency she preached about by ensuring that whenever possible she invites the UNRA BoD to accompany her in Cabinet and Parliament or even State House whenever there are meetings or policy discussions relating to the roads sector.
QUESTIONS UNRA EXPENDITURE;
In what some likened to crossing Kagina’s red line and straying into the space where Angels don’t dare, Azuba went as far as demanding that the UNRA ED prepares a paper justifying the per unit cost UNRA spends on road projects. “I will want to know and to be told how you arrive at and derive that unit cost,” Azuba was quoted as saying. She clarified she had been directed by Cabinet to demand answers on this matter and report back. “An independent study is going to be conducted. We have already set up a team to autonomously audit that and UNRA is free to nominate a representative. The team is, among other things, going to study the impact of designs on the cost of road construction.” Watch out for our follow up story showing what Gen Katumba and Bagiire said plus the responses of the UNRA BoD and management to the Riot Act read to them by Eng Monica Azuba Ntege. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
