By Our Reporters
As reported by New Vision earlier in the week, the IGG has embarked on investigations into recruitment irregularities said to have lately become rampant at Makerere University. We have learnt from IG sources that for a start, a total of 15 recruitment cases are going to be investigated in response to the damning whistle blower petition that was filed at the Inspectorate a few days ago.
DVC BAZEYO NOT SPARED;
Ironically those whose recruitment is to be investigated include DVC Finance & Administration the wealthy Prof William Bazeyo who is famous for gratifying people with lucrative foreign trips. He is very rich, cruises posh cars, owns Piato Restaurant on Lumumba Avenue and recently expanded it by opening another eatery on a nearby Street as you go towards All Saints Church Nakasero. He was previously the Dean School of Public Health where he controlled many donor programs including the $25m Reliance Africa Network (RAN) that seeks to wipe malaria out of Africa. The whistle blower claims that Bazeyo wasn’t properly posted as the Ag DVC because his instrument was signed by Ag Head HR Dorothy Senoga Zzake, a subordinate who Bazeyo ordinarily supervises. The whistle blower urges the IGG to interest herself with why the old practice of the Chancellor being the one to sign the instrument of appointment for such senior staff was departed from in Bazeyo’s case. This is what happened when Prof Tickodri was being assigned to serve as Ag DVC during the days of VC Baryamureeba. The whistle blower also wonders why the expected procedure, whereby 5 professors with equally good credentials are considered for the best to become the Ag DVC, wasn’t followed in William Bazeyo’s case.
SUPPLYING FOOD TO MAK;
The IGG is also considering examining the relationship between Bazeyo’s Piato staffers and managers at the Makerere Guest House regarding food stuffs that are sometimes brought in to feed University visitors. That isn’t all. Bazeyo also has project staff serving as Administrative Secretaries in his office as DVC and the whistle claims they aren’t sufficiently qualified. The whistle blower argues that such positions are meant for regular (and not project) staff. These are Ms Darlene Tumushabe and Zainab Kabuyonjo who used to serve Bazeyo at the School of Public Health under the One Health (OHCEA) project. On the IGG’s investigation file is an internal memo dated 19th September 2017. In that memo, Ag HR head Dorothy Senoga wrote the following comment regarding Kabuyonjo’s suitability for the job in the DVC office: “She isn’t appointable as Administrative Secretary because her qualifications are not in Secretarial Studies.” Senoga’s observation was made on 22nd September 2017 only three days after the relevant memo was originated and shared on email. The memo on the IGG file shows that the Kabuyonjo matter had previously been discussed and agreed upon between Bazeyo and VC Barnabas Nawangwe. Senoga also raised the issue of the two being project as opposed to being regular staff. This, she implied, too diminished their suitability for appointment to the VC’s office as Administrative Secretaries. Days later the same Senoga caved, made a U-turn and had them appointed, something the IGG is going to be keenly interested in. As we talk, the two ladies are in office doing their duties having been recruited on contract basis. According to Senoga (the Ag Head HR who is retiring in November this very year on account of age), the positions were supposed to be advertised eventually and it remains to be seen how the new HR head Mr. Abunyangu is going to go about this anomaly.
EUZOBIA BAINE SAGA;
At the prompting of the whistle blower, the IGG has determined to take a number of actions regarding this super lady who is holding 5 high profile job assignments at the University as we talk now. We rang to seek her comment and all she said was: “please make an appointment and come on Monday because these are official matters which can’t be discussed on phone and besides I don’t talk to strangers.” But what are the areas the IGG is looking into regarding Dr. Euzobia Baine who is famous for fighting for administrative staff rights to be treated fairly on matters regarding recruitment? The IGG is looking into why and how she came to be cross appointed yet she isn’t sufficiently qualified for the rank of Associate Professor as provided in the HR Manual. Cross appointment means one is posted to simultaneously serve as both administrative and academic staff. At CEES is supposed to be a lecturer and she substantively is Manager Quality Assurance for Makerere which is an administrative position. The 3rd responsibility or assignment she has is that of being council member representing MASA (administrative staff) though a significant section of MASA members, led by a one Magara, have never stopped disputing the circumstances under which she got that position. They accuse her of benefiting from a fraudulent election exercise to become the MASA Council representative. Her MASA adversaries have lately been emboldened by the IGG inquiry to renew hostilities against her. Fourthly she is a member of the appointments board which at the start of March 2018 ratified the appointment of her own son Albert Baine to serve as the AR Administrative Assistant attached to CAES.
The whistle blower implores the IGG to establish how competitive and transparent that recruitment exercise was. And more recently the same Euzobia Baine was tasked to serve as Ag Director Gender Mainstreaming Division and this was done in a manner that unfairly bypassed or sidelined more suitable Frances Nyacho who (as Deputy Director) had been running the show at the Division for two years in the absence of a substantive head. The IGG sources say this position should ordinarily have been advertised and the investigators will be scrutinizing Euzobia’s suitability to hold a Directorship position that attracts remuneration of M3 equivalent. The whistle blower insists that Nyacho was bypassed in a manner that unfairly favored Euzobia Baine.
The whistle blower insists (we are unsure the IGG won’t object) that the Ombudsman should also probe into the circumstances through which Euzobia overcame Magara and others to get the MASA position which she used to become Council member and eventually got a slot on the appointments board whose activities are the major focus of the IGG inquest into what has lately gone wrong at Makerere.
KABUYONJO/DARLENE;
These two (Zainabu Kabuyonjo & Darlene Tumushabe) were appointed on 22nd September 2017 after intense consultations between the Ag Head HR Dorothy Zzake Senoga, DVC William Bazeyo and VC Barnabas Nawangwe. They were recruited to serve as Administrative Assistants to DVC Bazeyo and according to Senoga, they each earn Shs3.5m per month and they are on contract as opposed to permanent terms. Available documentation shows that Senoga initially considered especially Kabuyonjo unqualified for the position and this is how she described her suitability in writing: “She is not appointable as Administrative Secretary because her qualifications are not in Secretarial Studies.” Only hours later on that same day (22nd September 2017), Senoga made a U-turn (ostensibly after extensive consultations) and directed one of her HR assistants (abbreviated as MPA) to “issue a contract of 6 months to Ms Kabuyonjo as Administrative Assistant as per the approval of chair A/B.” The issue, for which Prof Bazeyo is now in trouble with the IGG, is that this lady was a project staff (under One Health project) and wasn’t eligible for appointment as Administrative Secretary because, according to Senoga, such is a preserve for regular University staff. The IGG sources say that when he became DVC, Bazeyo found his predecessor Barnabas Nawangwe’s Administrative Assistants whom he got rid of to curiously create opportunity for his long term secretary Zainabu Kabuyonjo. The two had worked together at School of Public Health where Bazeyo served as Dean before replacing Nawangwe as DVC. Darlene Tumushabe’s recruitment is being looked into by the IGG over similar concerns.
OTHERS BEING PROBED:
The others being probed by the IGG include a soldier’s wife called Donna Keirungi whose spouse works in Jinja. The whistle blower says she is occupying a University House meant for Mary Stuart Hall resident tutor. The whistle blower urges the IGG to establish when she was first appointed to be a Makerere University staff and the people she competed with to get allocated that University House. The others are Ester Adonite Odur of PDU and Jackie Ayorekire who the whistle blower says occupies a post that should ordinarily have been for Deborah Nalule. The other Makerere staffers being subjected to the IGG inquiry include Galloway/Kabanyolo warden Rivan Peter MuherezaDomilia Achom, Braise Turyasingura, Albert Baine, Annet Lubuya Khabuya, Sheila Ikiriza, Martin Emukunyu, Darlene Tumushabe, Zainab Kabuyonjo and Alexander Mpanga Zzake. Two of these are biological children of Euzobia Baine (Albert Baine) and Ag Head HR Dorothy Zzake Senoga (Alexander Mpanga Zzake). Whereas Baine was in March 2018 recruited as AR Assistant for CAES, Mpanga was in April 2018 recruited as Planning and Maintenance Engineer in DICTS (Mak’s ICT Directorate). In the IGG’s possession is the Senoga-filled HR document clearly showing that Alexander Mpanga Zzake is her first born child (born on 5th November 1986). In the same document Senoga presents KCCA ED Jennifer Musisi Semakula as her next of kin. Musisi then was employed with URA and the document was filled on 26th June 2003 by Senoga who says she joined Makerere HR department on 31st May 1988. She discloses that her husband Justine Zzake works with World Bank in Washington. Under consideration by the IGG is the Senoga-related 2013 trivial incident that occurred during a Mak top management residential retreat at Ridah Hotel Seeta where key facilitators included her brother in law the veteran HR practitioner Godfrey Bazanye Nkangi.
Still on Senoga, there is also general outcry by elderly professors whose retirement benefits would be controversially chopped (by as much as Shs100m) by staffers in her HR Directorate. The IGG detectives have since contacted an old Professor from the school of education’s department of higher education whose painful ordeal at the hands of Senoga’s juniors at HR department nearly cost him Shs90m. Senoga’s assistants were arguing that such old professors weren’t eligible for such pension money because they were serving on short contracts. From the appointment letters, firmly in the IGG’s possession, the indicted recruits have each been earning monthly as follows; Alexander Mpanga Zzake Shs4.8m, Kabuyonjo Shs3.5m, Darlene Tumushabe Shs3.5m, Didus Bamwine Shs3.5m, Martin Emukunyu Shs4.8m, Emmanuel Asiimwe Shs3.5m, Domilia Achom Shs3.5m, Rivan Peter Muhereza Shs2.2m and Braise Turyasingura Shs3.5m.
According to the New Vision, there is much more the IGG will be looking into beyond what the whistle blower discloses in his petition. The other matters that have since come to the attention of the IGG relate to the manner in which long serving University lawyer Goddy Muhumuza was overcome and new Director Legal Director Henry Mwebe came in. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
