By Mulengera Reporters
As a result of the President’s Monday 9th November move to redeploy officers to serve as Permanent Secretaries, at least five Under Secretary positions instantly became vacant at some Ministries. And hereunder we explain how exactly that happened.
The elevation to PS of Dr. Edward Ddamulira Ssengozi, Dr. Emmanuel Freddie Mugunga, Edith Buturo, Aggrey Wunyi and that of Barbara Namugambe to PS positions left a huge administrative vacuum at the Ministries of Finance, Lands, Defense, Uganda Police Force and that of Works & Transport where the above referenced officers had been serving substantively as Under Secretaries.
Naturally, working with Office of the President Secretary Hajji Yunnus Kakande, Head of Public Service Lucy Nakyobe has to quickly identify new officers to replace them as a matter of urgency. An Under Secretary, who defacto serves as the deputy PS, is very important in the administration of a Ministry to the extent that the GoU can’t afford to have those positions remain vacant for long.
Yet for Nakyobe and Kakande to get officers to deploy, they have to rely on Public Service Commission (PSC) which is charged with interviewing and recruitment suitable candidates for eventual deployment to the positions of Under Secretary. Apparently, PSC had anticipated this vacuum and commenced on the recruitment process as early as March this very year. In total, 18 candidates enrolled for the interviews and were indeed interviewed.
However, a whistle blower petitioned the IGG seeking to halt the recruitment even though a lot of work had already been done. The whistle blower claimed that irregularities were committed during the recruitment of Under Secretaries to the extent that “the results were manipulated and altered by PSC staff” to favor certain candidates since “the same application number [had been] used during the written exams” aspects of the interviewing process.
The relieving news is that in her Wednesday 9th November letter to the PSC, the IGG Aisha Naluzze Batala makes it clear that no merit was found in the whistle blowers’ claims. And as a result, the recruitment process is cleared as being beyond reproach and the Commission must now go on and complete the exercise. Through her written orders dated 8th and 27th July, the IGG had decreed that the PSC halts the entire process, which is now cleared to continue to conclusion.
The PSC, which is newly constituted under the chairmanship of Kisoro-hailing Vincent Seruma, now has to work very quickly to finalize the recruitment and proclaim the names to the Cabinet Secretariat so that Lucy Nakyobe and Hajji Yunnus Kakande can have officers to deploy to replace the above referenced five who have since been elevated and moved to assume substantive PS positions. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
