By Mulengera Reporter
The Permanent Secretary /Secretary to the Treasury is facing the test of his time at the Ministry of Finance over issuance of contracts for three retiring staff. These include Mr. Fixon Okonye, the Internal Auditor General, Mr. Kaggwa Moses, the Ag. Director Economic Affairs and Ms Maris Wanyera, the Ag. Director Debt and Cash Policy.
This is reminiscent of what happened at the Water Ministry recently where disgruntled Staff went to court over the controversial renewal of contract for Commissioner John Twinomujuni for another two years. It should be noted that young officers in government are always against issuance of contracts to retiring staff as this hinders their growth in the Public Service.
When a single officer retires at senior management level, it triggers promotion at all levels from senior, principal, assistant commissioner and commissioner. Young officers are understandably always unhappy and frustrated whenever a member of senior management is blocked from retirement and is intend made to seek for contract renewal and retention. The junior staff at Finance are therefore demanding withdrawal of the contracts that PS/ST has offered to the trio of Mr. Okonye, Mr. Kaggwa and Ms Wanyera.
They are also disgruntled over the fact that in the past, a number of senior members of staff have retired and PS/ST Ramathan Goobi did let them go whenever they clocked 60 years. Examples include Mr. Godfrey Dhatemwa, Mr. Laban Mbulamuko, Ishmael Magona, Kakama Godwin and Moses Zziwa.
The anti-Goobi young officers are equally wondering why the PSST is creating an exception for Mr. Okonye, Mr. Kaggwa and Ms Wanyera. He is being accused of favoritism and of acting inconsistently since he didn’t offer the same opportunity to the other retiring members of staff who left earlier.
Displeasured insiders in the country’s Public Service assert that by giving contracts to the three, the PSST is inadvertently introducing a culture of non-retirement for staff who have clocked the mandatory retirement age of 60 years. It all started deputy PSST Mr. Patrick Ocailap who stayed put instead of bowing out honorably when he clocked 60 years. He is now 68 years and still clinging onto the job. By all measure, by acquiescing to the trio’s desire to stay put, the PSST is setting a bad precedent that will negatively affect the morale of staff at the all-important Ministry.
Staff at the Ministry are quietly revolting and all options are on table including dragging Ramathan Goobi to court like was done by aggrieved staff at the case of Ministry of Water. Some are considering deliberately becoming inefficient by dragging their feet on what in order to undermine the overall performance of Goobi as PSST, in what has aptly been described as the ‘power of the powerless.’
This will negatively impact performance of work at the Ministry. Aggrieved staffers are also considering petitioning the Head of Public Service Lucy Nakyobe and the President of Uganda over this perceived preferential treatment and decision to offer the retiring officers contracts for them to continue occupying office as if no one else can manage doing similar work.
