All isn’t well at National ID Registration Authority (NIRA) where a section of staffers has petitioned the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga claiming existence of a conspiracy to get them out of their jobs. Located at Kololo Airstrip, NIRA is charged with registration of births, deaths and other things at a basic fee. It started way back in 2014 as a project called National Security Information System (NSIS) supervised by Gen Aronda Nyakayirima under whom there was mass registration of citizens in preparation for 2016 elections. Under Aronda, 1000s of officers were recruited but these were meant to be temporary and not permanent and pensionable. In July 2016, the whole thing metamorphosed into NIRA under an Act of Parliament (ROPA). Of the 1000s found on the job, the NIRA Board approved an interim staff structure under which only 290 were regularized or recruited. Because 290 was too small a number to carry out NIRA work, mostly registration in the whole country, the NIRA management voted to retain some of the old staff especially those categorized as issuance officers in the districts. Their stay was informal-wasn’t approved by BOD, they had no appointment letters and operated from the local governments-based EC offices or KCCA offices for Kampala’s case. In simple terms these were retained as volunteers but whom NITA would pay some remuneration as and when it became available. As they volunteered, some of the positions on the NIRA approved structure were still vacant and recruitment, conducted by Kamwokya-based recruitment firm Profiles International, was gradually ongoing. In the ongoing recruitment, even the volunteers already working with NIRA were free to apply as indeed management encouraged them to. Unfortunately, some qualified and got the jobs while others didn’t for lack of the requisite qualifications including age. At some point, the contracted recruitment firm advertised 117 vacancies for district-based Assistant Registration Officers but more than 10,000 people applied. This naturally meant that close to 9,800 applicants, including the long serving volunteers, were going to be disappointed. They couldn’t just be validated, much as they had already been trained and experienced, because best practice rules required a competitive and very transparent process. It was a matter of the consultant whose long running contract had been entered into even before the current management, headed by CEO Judith Obitre Gama, were recruited. As of 2017, over 55,000 Ugandans had applied for the different jobs at NIRA which in total can never exceed 607 employees both at headquarters in Kampala and the districts. The prolonged recruitment process in the FY2016/17 angered the Finance Ministry technocrats to cut the Authority’s wage budget from Shs25bn to just Shs15bn. This was after NIRA returned cash to the Consolidated Fund at the end of a FY because it couldn’t be spent as the employees on whom it was supposed to be spent hadn’t been recruited. Failure to utilize the money made finance ministry conclude that NIRA management was flat footed and didn’t deserve the Shs25bn. As at the dawn of FY2017/18, the finance ministry withheld up to Shs10bn meant for the wage bill. The absence of this money meant that guys who went through the rigorous interviews and recruitment process couldn’t be appointed and posted because of absence of money. The failure to get appointment letters has led to anxiety resulting into the latest petition to the Speaker in which petitioners accuse NIRA management of sidelining genuinely qualified employees in order to accommodate over 300 NRM cadres that some two years ago underwent cadreship training in Kyankwanzi on the promise Mzee that would give them jobs. The Kyankwanzi recruits were mostly young people who in 2016 boosted Mr. Museveni’s re-election by denouncing JPAM in the middle of the campaigns. Their original expectation was that they would be made RDCs for the start but this hasn’t materialized because many of them couldn’t pass the ISO vetting.
BACK TO NIRA:
A total of 170 employees qualified for the jobs but haven’t been issued with appointment letters because the money hasn’t yet been availed to get the wage bill back to Shs25bn. Gratefully of the 170 staffers who passed the interviews and are supposed to get appointment letters, more than 80% are guys who have been part of the ID registration process since the Aronda days. NIRA currently has 292 employees out of the 607 required to satisfy its approved structure. As per now negotiations are on with the Finance Ministry to see how NIRA can get back the Shs10bn to get its annual wage bill back to Shs25bn. NIRA jobs are attracting lots of anxiety because the Authority’s salaries are ranked among the best in town. Whereas the CEO earns over Shs30m per month, the lowest paid employee (office assistant) earns a gross of Shs1.3m which comes to around Shs0.9m after taxes and other statutory obligations like NSSF. In Parliament, the disgruntled employee’s petition is being handled and spearheaded by Buhweju County MP Francis Mwijukye of the FDC party. To comment on this & other Mulengera news stories, call/text us on 0703164755!
