By Simon Turibamwe
A litany of leaked letters and confidential correspondences have shed light on the circumstances under which Professor Anthony Mbonye became professionally frustrated leading into his acrimonious exit from the Ministry of Health for which he had worked for 33 years counting from 1986 when he first joined as an intern doctor. Mbonye is a powerful personality married to State House Comptroller Lucy Nakyobe and was recently in newspapers after he produced a controversial book in which he directed a lot of anger and frustration towards PS Diana Atwiine and ministers Sarah Opendi, Jane Ruth Aceng and their predecessor Dr. Christine Ondoa. In his book, Mbonye indicates that he was forced to leave the ministry as a way of protesting the incompetence and intrigue to which the four ladies subjected him.
NEW FACTS
A perusal of the available confidential documents indicates that Mbonye’s departure from the ministry was caused by his voluntary desire to quit in return for an international job which he considered irresistible because of better pay and better conditions of work. In his own letter dated 25th January 2018, Mbonye stated that he wanted to be let go in order to take up a juicier job offer with a rich organization based in Switzerland. There is written evidence by him which shows that in the same month he personally informed Public Service ministry PS Catherine Musingwiire that the said organization had offered him a job to serve as a Global Health Coordinator in charge of Maternal Child Health. He asked her to support his efforts to go for early retirement which he said he was due for because he had worked for 30 years already and was 56 years old with few years remaining to his retirement. He explained to her how he had had a vibrant career which had seen him rise to the position of director health services in 2013. Earlier on, Mbonye had written another two-page letter to Musingwiire still seeking her support to facilitate his exit from Ministry of Health. This is what he stated in his letter: “I recently got a job offer with an international organization and had to show that am not holding another job elsewhere. I opted for early retirement. Since I’m 56 years old and have worked for 31 years in service, I qualify as per the provisions of the Constitution and the Public Service Standing Orders 2010.” He adds that because this job is very important for him and Uganda as a country, the President had endorsed him for it and asked the PS to let him go either through early retirement or resignation so that he doesn’t miss out on it. In the same letter, Mbonye complained of being frustrated by the PS Atwiine who he says left the country without instructing the undersecretary to endorse his departure. He told Musingwiire that because his first option for early retirement hadn’t been granted on time, he was taking the option of resigning so that he doesn’t miss out on his international job. In the same letter he informed Musingwiire that he was effectively resigning to be able to qualify for the Swiss job. He signs off by informing her that he is a very marketable professor because of the numerous achievement awards he had been winning in the last more than 30 years in service. Eventually in March 2018, Musingwiire granted Mbonye’s wish to exit from the Public Service of Uganda specifically the Ministry of Health. It was preceded by another letter by PS Atwiine indicating that the ministry had no objections to make regarding Mbonye’s desire to leave Public Service. Atwiine indicated to both Musingwiire and Mbonye that she was more than ready to sign off the latter’s exit documents except that Mbonye himself had not been very clear on how he wanted to exit whether by way of early retirement or resignation. For comments, call or text us on 0752510225.
