By Joachim Twino
If you thought Col Kizza Besigye has monopoly over defiance, just read this. At Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), Jolly Kaguhangire Kamugira the Executive Director whom the Board purported to interdict following a stormy Tuesday meeting on Wednesday morning took defiance to a whole new level by flamboyantly turning up for work. She had been ED for only one year but Jolly Kaguhangire had entrenched herself so deeply that when she turned up on Wednesday for work, as if nothing had happened the previous evening, the BoD had no mechanism to prevent her from accessing office. Having taken office at a time the government had raised the security alert so high following the brutal Kaweesi murder, Kaguhangire has an elaborate VVIP security detail that was ironically given to her with Board approval on recruiting her. That then IGP Gen Kayihura came up with new security measures
warranting heavy protection for all CEOs of especially strategically very important state entities including UIA. Insiders say when Kaguhangire walked into office Wednesday morning, there was confusion among staff members who were preparing for an induction meeting with Mr. Basil Ajer who had been appointed acting ED for the three months Kaguhangire was to remain away on interdiction. On seeing Kaguhangire back, the employees even developed cold feet towards attending Ajer’s meeting especially after word going round that Kaguhangire too intended to address the same employees defiantly assuring them the Board interdiction was an exercise in futility. Reports were that Minister Matia Kasaija, who some board members accuse of bias, had already politically intervened to restore sanity at the all-important UIA.
KAGUHANGIRE’S REASONS;
It later emerged from sources at the mother finance ministry that Kaguhangire had communicated to the political leadership giving reasons why she considers the Board interdiction a nullity. In fact we are reliably informed that, on hearing she was back in office, Board members sent someone to deliver the interdiction letter to her but the ED refused even to acknowledge receipt arguing she had better things to do. Sources close to Matia Kasaija say that in her written statement trashing the interdiction, Kaguhangire (who assured Board members as much during the Tuesday meeting when she was called back) majorly gives two reasons why the Board goofed. This was the 51st Board meeting and the ED maintains the interdiction was invalid because of the procedural improprieties that were committed by Chairman Emily Kugonza & Co. She says there was no quorum required to take such a decision. She quotes the Board Manual sections 3, 5 & 2 plus the Investment Code Act which requires quorum of at least 8 members. She argues that out of the 9 members who attended the Tuesday meeting, three (including herself) were out at the time the interdiction was decided. With 6 members, as opposed to 8, she argues, the decision taken was procedurally wrong and a nullity. Some of the 9 members present include Fred Opolot, Emily Kugonza, Mary Katarikawe, Piwanga Jalobo, Bukoma Rhamadha, Fred T Ogene, Shifa Kaddu and Jolly Kaguhangire. Sources said, because some members like Piwanga Jalobo always turn these meetings into forums to give prolonged lectures, some members always move out in protest the moment they are satisfied important matters of the day have been discussed and resolved upon. She also argues that, besides quorum, Section 4 of the Board Manual requires members with renowned interests in the matter at hand to always excuse themselves to avoid partiality and conflict of interest as natural justice rules exclude anyone from being a judge in his or her own case. Members like Piwanga should accordingly not have participated in taking the decision against the ED against whom he has been everywhere (to 1st Lady, ISO, Parliament, IGG, OPM etc) delivering whistle blower letters accusing the ED. Piwanga has always complained on record. Kaguhangire, who has also not ruled out challenging the interdiction in court and be awarded hundreds of millions in damages (NSSF Geraldine Ssali style), also argues that the procedure on notice was defaulted upon. She reportedly argues in her written statement to her political supervisors in the Finance Ministry that Section 4.1.2 (b) requires that such meetings follow a sequence of an agenda as adopted. She says issues to do with the ED’s interdiction were never part of the agenda as adopted. Her other argument is that the requirement to give members a notice of 7 days prior to the meeting wasn’t complied with in this case. She reportedly copied her communication to many other offices including the Director Banking Bank of Uganda to whom Board Chairman Emily Kugonza had already written directing him not to recognize Kaguhangire as the accounting officer for UIA anymore. Sources who looked at it say that, in her communication, Kaguhangire dismisses the interdiction decision as “irregular & illegal” and advises stakeholders to ignore any other person (preferably Ajer) that purports to hold the position of ED UIA.
HOW/WHY SHE FELL OUT WITH BOD;
A number of things have happened in the past one year resulting into serious fallouts between the ED Kaguhangire and a faction of board members led by Piwang Jalobo who at some point fell out with Board chairman Kugonza (even wrote letters calling him puppet) simply because he felt the chairman wasn’t being hard enough on the ED. Whereas UIA Board members each get Shs2.6m per month as retainer, some have been demanding for an increment. Kaguhangire has vigorously opposed this arguing that there was no money because already of the Shs8bn UIA gets as budget, Board remuneration already takes Shs650m. Besides the Shs2.6m retainer they get per month, Board members also get another Shs750,000 which Kaguhangire must improvise and pay each one of them per meeting. It’s sitting allowance. As Chairman, Kugonza’s retainer is Shs3m. This has for long been protested by some board members calling it discriminatory. They too want theirs raised to Shs3m per month, a thing Kaguhangire has been objecting too on grounds that UIA is a very poor entity that can’t even fund basic things. Her predecessors run UIA as a department of the Finance Ministry which never had its own vote. They got the vote recently through her relentless lobbying and efforts. The relevant regulations prescribe at least 4 meetings a year (one per quarter) but some board members, desiring to cash in on the Shs750,000 per meeting, always push for as many special meetings as possible. This too is a pain to the ED who must find the money for the sitting allowances. This quite often has come at the expense of work targets that management has to deliver upon. The UIA resource envelope is so limited, sometimes Board members have had to wait for arrears, a thing that naturally creates friction between them and ED. When it came to securing government land in the UIA industrial parks, Kaguhangire stepped on many toes and sought the Board backing but it wasn’t forthcoming. Some board members felt she was pushing too hard. For instance at Namanve when she became ED, she found theoretically (in records at UIA), the park comprises of 2,200 acres but on verification it was found only 1,550 existed on the ground. She furiously questioned Director Industrial Park Hamza Galiwango along with Warren Muhangi who was working as surveyor for UIA. In the end, Galiwango had to be interdicted after police arrested people who were illegally excavating sand and murram in the Namanve Park. Some of these claimed to have had Galiwango’s backing for their illegal activities. The Director was even arrested and was only released on police bond resulting into his interdiction from work. In all the meetings that took place, Kaguhangire and other progressive-minded Board members fought hard to have Galiwango, and
later on Muhangi, expelled. Ironically they had powerful backers among Board members who never forgave the new ED for cracking the whip. Muhangi was replaced by a young man whose recruitment the ED actively backed insisting he would help UIA. This young man has since discovered many land-related frauds, angering some in the board. They have been trying to expel him only to meet resistance from the ED hence another cause for misunderstandings. In 2009, government massively allocated land to many entities in especially Namanve on the understanding that serious work had to be undertaken within 5 years. In case of failure the beneficiaries would forfeit the offer and land reverts to government to be allocated to more serious investors. 5 years elapsed in 2014 but the UIA leadership, fearing to be resisted by powerful people, didn’t act. When she became ED, Kaguhangire embarked on a verification exercise at the end of which many offers were revoked. Some people had sold and others were in the process to. As of December, Kaguhangire had revoked over 100 offers, a thing that annoyed many investors and their allies in the board who unsuccessfully fought the revocation. In Mbale, the younger surveyor she recruited resurveyed the entire park and discovered his predecessors had under declared the land by 10 acres (it totals to 619 acres). This was reclaimed back to UIA/GoU but some board members were unhappy. UIA has another 150 acres in Kashari Mbarara but Kaguhangire’s young man exposed mafias that had under declared the acreage by 5.3acres. For the Kasese industrial parks, lots of money had been spent under the guise of opening boundaries and fencing off the land but on becoming ED, Kaguhangire suddenly went there and discovered no work had ever been done there yet lots of money had been recorded to have been spent there the previous financial years. She insisted on cracking the whip on responsible officers but some board members resented this. On taking charge following years of having no ED at UIA, Kaguhangire insisted on restructuring staff a move the board reluctantly endorsed. UIA had 6 Directors serving below the ED. Restructuring commenced after the 6 incumbent directors, including Hamza Galiwango, had been relieved of their duties.
IGG PROBES BOARD;
As the IGG Irene Mulyagonja points out in her 11th June 2018 letter announcing comprehensive investigations against Board members, 5 of the 6 Directors put in office at the post-restructuring UIA are the very same guys that were fired before restructuring. Only one of the 6 is a new person. This caused lots of animosity between Kaguhangire and some board members. In her two page letter, Mulyagonja says an aggrieved whistle blower reported to her office this anomaly. She introduces Samson Katutu and John Bosco Kabbale as the two IG officers who will be grilling board members to establish why they abused the restructuring process and acted in a manner so “detrimental to the smooth running of UIA.” Mulyagonja directs that none of the newly recruited Directors should be issued with appointment letters until her investigations are completed. She requires the concerned board members to be prepared to answer all questions put to them and to also cooperate by availing all the relevant documents. However, Mulyagonja is furious that on getting her letter, some dubious board members decided to circumvent her intervention by directing the status quo that prevailed at UIA before restructuring started to be restored. And accordingly the very guys whose appointment letters she says shouldn’t be issued until she is done investigating have defiantly been called back to resume their office like was the case in the pre-restructuring period. There are fears Mulyagonja, who doesn’t take lightly those who contemptuously ignore her directives, might pounce on board members and arrest them the way she did to Kyambogo Council members some years ago. Watch out for our next story showing why Board member Piwanga Lalobo has been fighting the BoD Chairman Emily Kugonza who recently reacted by writing to Matia Kasaija recommending disciplinary action against Piwanga. Piwanga also feels that Kasaija has biases in favor of Kugonza (he calls him puppet) because he comes from his Buyanja Constituency as a voter. We have some interesting correspondences to that effect which will be published along. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
