Prof Charles Kwesiga has been ED for Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) for 12 years now without break. He first got the job in 2006 and a whistle blower has written to Parliament (copying it to line Minister Elioda Tumwesigye) giving reasons why Kwesiga’s contract, which expired on 30th June 2018, shouldn’t be renewed (the man from Kabale has since got an extension-editor). The whistle blower gives insights into how Kwesiga, a trusted confidante for the President &Gen Salim Saleh, has managed to keep his job for so long. The whistle blower eloquently argues that this longevity has nothing to do with stellar performance. How then has Kwesiga, to whom over Shs156bn has been entrusted since 2006, managed to remain this powerful?
WINS OVER BIG P’PLE;
Kwesiga, who carries a much envied PhD, has always positioned himself as the eloquent guarantor of the President’s political interests by taking care of his political cadres. He has supported many Musevenists operate their businesses better. Moses Byaruhanga, of the Mega milk, is one of the beneficiaries the other being Olive Kigongo, wife to the ruling NRM’s long serving national vice chairman. Yet that isn’t all. Kwesiga has been very supportive of groups in which big people have interest. He for instance swiftly used UIRI funds to donate a state of art Diary Processing Machine to support diary production operated by some of Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda’s people. The very enterprising Rugunda people operate diary business in Wakiso district. Kwesiga has also always known how to look after his line minister Elioda Tumwesigye. Only recently, the elderly professor used his office as UIRI ED to extend to Elioda’s people support via brand new textile equipment. Indeed, as Kwesiga’s own experience shows, there are benefits in looking after one’s line minister or board chairman well. Kwesiga has new contract already despite protestations by some UIRI insiders who consider him unsuitable on grounds of inflated ego, mismanagement and incompetence. Even when critics consider that there are lots of accountability gaps in the way Kwesiga runs the show at UIRI, the Auditor General’s reports have always rated the man favorably as accounting officer UIRI. The same goes for the IGG who has previously deployed tough investigators only for the man to be cleared of any wrongdoing. Notwithstanding his old age (he is 70), Kwesiga is sociable and generously to ensure his best friends have a good time whenever they are in his midst.He is very popular with young corporates working in Kampala who look up to him as a selfless mentor. When he travels, Kwesiga always is under Business Class and this enables him to rub shoulders with the mighty and people who matter when it comes to making decisions. He also undertakes luxurious trips abroad and in the month of June alone, available internal UIRI records show that colossal sums of money was easily made available by UIRI management. It’s this money the Professor used to travel to Kigali, Kenya and Canada ostensibly to represent UIRI. But in his dossier, the whistle blower tasks Parliament to interrogate Kwesiga to show the benefits UIRI reaped from his trips to these three countries. In Canada, he attended the Uganda Convention but, if asked, he would struggle to show the benefits his organization reaped from his participation. The other tactic Kwesiga uses to consolidate himself is by ensuring he earns a big salary when the rest of his subordinates earn peanuts as they wallow in abject poverty. The Professor also knows how to ensure his organization wins many awards testifying to his excellent performance but the whistle blower urges MPs not to be duped because many of these are “fictitious awards” offered just to massage the ED’s fat ego.
SHOCKING ALLEGATIONS;
Prof Kwesiga, whose comprehensive response we sought but failed to getbefore publishing this article, stands accused of a number of anomalies by a whistle blower whose dossier has duly been received by Parliament and his line minister. That he is too old and forgetful to remain CEO for a 21st century organization like UIRI in which so much tax payers’ money continues to be sunk. Quoting disgruntled insiders, the whistle blower says the man is lately very forgetful because of frailty. He also accuses him of curiously surrounding himself with young corporates in Kampala on whom he splashes a lot of money just to impress them. The whistle blower makes reference to a number of instances and misguided undertakings through which tax payers’ money has been squandered under the Professor’s directives. That there are curious projects into which Kwesiga has been sinking big sums of money but in actual they are deliberately meant to be white elephants to enable him continue controlling big monies with his corporate friends including Annet Kemundu who has since left Kampala for Canada. She was the blue eyed girl whom Kwesiga liked spoiling with care on many of the luxurious foreign trips he undertook. In the brief interaction with this news website, Kwesiga sarcastically said “that matter was even in Parliament and if indeed spending so much money to save a Ugandan’s life [Kemundu was diagnosed with cancer at some stage] was bad, then I plead guilty.” Thecurious projects are listed to include; Mbale meat factory, Busia meat factory, Arua Fruit juice factory, Lira Peanut factory, Maziba winery factory and Kabala mineral water factory. “On paper he [Prof Kwesiga] brags about these being UIRI factories yet none of them is functional anywhere in Uganda,” the whistle blower furiously points out. The author shows huge hate and contempt for Kwesiga by describing him using very strong derogatory words which we can’t even repeat here. That Kwesiga fired the formal accounts team at UIRI and replaced it with his curiously hired accountants whose ineptness is capitalized upon to freely access the institution’s money to the extent that every quarter the big man pockets a minimum of Shs400m. Kwesiga laughed this off saying “can you imagine making Shs1.6bn every year? That makes me one of the richest men in Kampala.” That he diverts the organization’s funds by directing his submissive accounts team to permit him post public funds on his personal account, a charge Kwesiga vehemently denies. The whistle blower adds that in absence of a governing board, Kwesiga runs UIRI like his private estate since even top management is synonymous with him. The last time a board existed, it was headed by seasoned senior citizen Hillary Obonyo who had a very acrimonious relationship with Kwesiga. The whistle blower adds that whereas the UIRI structure provides for 5 Directors, and even money for their recruitment is always availed in the budget, powerful man Kwesiga has ensured that there is only one director in place. This enables him make personal decisions on the way UIRI should run and there is no body to check or counter his decisions. These gaps in management have led to a situation where majority of the staff do almost nothing because one doesn’t have to register much output to keep their job, the whistle blower asserts.
INNOVATION FUND;
The whistle blower also talks about the innovation fund for which Shs8bn was allocated but the UIRI management diverted the whole of it between January and June 2018. The whistle blower implores MPs to direct Auditor General John Muwanga to forensically inquire into the utilization of this money. The whistle blower also talks about a number of projects funded with UIRI money yet they remain personalized by top managers. These include Buhara project, Wakiso Tile project, UIRI Just Jolly Fruit Drink, Kabala Potato processing, Kabala Bamboo Project, Kabala Maziba Wine project, Kabala Water Processing and Namugongo Toilet Paper project. Having accumulated a personal fortune off all these projects, top managers according to the whistle blower have acquired lots of property to the extent that one of the top officials currently owns over 30% of the land and buildings in one of big upcountry townships. The whistle blower says Kwesigais doing big time commercial farming upcountry and its being supervised for him by Stephen Isanga, a UIRI employee who the whistle blower says is ready to spill the beans once MPs give him audience. That Kwesiga person Swizzin manages Namugongo Toilet Paper project which produces the not so very high quality TP on the market, according to the whistle blower. He isn’t officially a UIRI employee yet he earns a good salary and isn’t even an incubatee under the UIRI incubation program. The organization’s pick up double cabin assigned to Namugongo TP project is always parked at Ntinda bars in the wee hours of the morning. The whistle blower also accuses top UIRI bosses of nepotism and urges MPs to conduct a census and realize for themselves how not less than 60% of UIRI employees are from one district. That the UIRI top management has also abused the incubation program whereby project managers don’t know much about what is happening because the big men run it like their private estate. The qualification criterion isn’t clear: whomever top managersconsider acceptable is enrolled and vice versa. That top managers have always duped MPs by taking them to the Namanve UIRI facility to create a false impression about their performance and output. The whistle blower says the Namanve facility was successfully erected because the cash to put it up didn’t go through the UIRI big bosses. The whistle blower also decries the colossal sums of money UIRI loses in court cases lost as a result of ED Kwesiga’s draconian policies marginalizing staff. The whistle blower makes reference to Tumweboneire and Rubarema’s predicament as examples of victims of the ED’s aggressive approach of not tolerating criticism at UIRI. That majority employees are too disgusted with the ED’s leadership but are too timid and cowed to speak out. The whistle blower calls for the urgent constitution of a governing board at UIRI so that it plays the oversight role and check on Kwesiga’s powers. Kwesiga isn’t new to controversy given the skirmishes he previously had with MOES PS Dr. Rose Nassali over control of Kigumba Petroleum Institute. Nassali rightly insisted it was improper for one person to be CEO for two government institutions as if other Ugandans can’t serve.
KWESIGA SPEAKS OUT;
Saying he was too busy to comprehensively respond to the whistle blower claims, Kwesiga broadly said he knows the people behind this and they are uncomfortable with his firm stand against people he called incompetent and dubious. That he recently reprimanded people for stealing UIRI mortars and other equipment at the Institute’s offices in Nakawa near Crown Beverages where their 10 acre complex is enclosed. He also wondered why people can be so ungrateful to a man who transformed UIRI from scratch to the EAC center of excellence it is today. He also referred to his numerous accomplishments including the numerous awards and growing the institute’s annual budget allocation from less than Shs300m to the billions they currently get. He also cautioned us against publicizing the whistle blower allegations lest we get into problems with security agencies which he said are investigating what could have motivated the controversial document’s authors. He warned that by publishing the story, we might rub the security agencies the wrong way and live to regret our actions. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
