By Aggrey Baba
Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) Executive Director (ED) Prof. Charles Kwesiga on Tuesday moved to clear the air over questions surrounding the governance of UIRI, telling Parliament that the institute has a fully constituted seven-member Board chaired by former CDF Gen. Ivan Koreta.
Prof. Kwesiga made the clarification when he led UIRI officials before the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE), chaired by Kyadondo East MP Muwadda Nkunyingi, to respond to queries contained in the Auditor General’s report for the financial year ended December 2015.
The governance question emerged during the session as COSASE members sought to establish the status of UIRI’s Board before proceeding with the examination of the financial queries.
There had been concerns raised about the apparent absence of a substantive Board at the institute, but Prof. Kwesiga quickly put the matter into perspective, explaining that UIRI has a Board in place and that it is already actively undertaking its oversight responsibilities.
“We have a board in place, led by General Ivan Koreta. The board is of seven members,” Prof. Kwesiga told COSASE.
He further explained that the confusion over the Board had largely arisen from a series of Government administrative changes that affected UIRI’s institutional home and, consequently, the continuity of its governance arrangements.
According to the ED, UIRI at different times fell under the ministry responsible for industry and later under the ministry responsible for science, technology and innovation, before being returned to the industry ministry.
But the Government’s rationalization process, Prof. Kwesiga said, also contributed to the delays and gaps experienced in the constitution of the Board.
“But that’s all now behind us. We have a good board,” Prof. Kwesiga assured MP Muwadda Nkunyingi’s committee.
The UIRI chief further explained that the current Board is relatively new, having been appointed last year, and has since started actively exercising its oversight mandate.
He added that the Board has been holding regular meetings and participating in the process of reviewing and guiding UIRI’s plans.
The clarification was significant because it established that the governance concerns being discussed were largely matters associated with previous institutional transitions rather than a continuing failure by the current management to maintain oversight structures.
Prof. Kwesiga’s response to Nkunyingi’s tough questions also demonstrated the willingness of the UIRI management to subject the institution to parliamentary scrutiny while at the same time providing the context within which some of the historical concerns arose.
Rather than treating the COSASE scrutiny as an adversarial process, Kwesiga invited the committee to visit UIRI’s facilities in Nakawa and Namanve, and physically inspect the institute’s infrastructure, machinery and other assets.
The invitation was intended to give the MPs an opportunity to see first-hand what UIRI does and assess the institution beyond the figures contained in an old audit report.
Prof. Kwesiga explained that his institute is not simply another Government administrative agency but a technical institution whose work involves research, technology development, industrial support, innovation and the development of products and processes capable of supporting Uganda’s economic transformation.
He further reminded the Nkunyingi-led committee that UIRI was established by Government in 2002 and has since grown from a relatively small establishment into one of the country’s key institutions supporting the industrialization of the country.
Its mandate, he explained, can broadly be summarized as helping Government create and mobilize industries and catalyzing socio-economic transformation through enhanced use of technology.
This, according to the professor, places UIRI at the center of Uganda’s efforts to move towards a more productive and industrial economy.
He also used the COSASE appearance to draw attention to the financial pressures associated with running a national research and industrial technology institution, where he identified inadequate funding for research and development as one of UIRI’s major challenges.
He explained that research and development require substantial and sustained investment, particularly for institutions expected to develop technologies, support industries, train personnel and convert innovations into commercially useful products.
Despite the funding challenge, Prof. Kwesiga said UIRI has continued to perform its mandate and evolve from its original structure into a major national industrial research institution.
His presentation sought to place UIRI’s achievements and challenges within the wider Government agenda of industrialization rather than allowing the discussion to be reduced to individual accounting entries contained in a report dating back to 2015. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
