By Mulengera Reporters
Under a multiplicity of circumstances, the Inspectorate of Government (IG) has continued to lose some of its treasured employees. A significant number have either been asked to leave or opted to ease out on their own volition. The departures have greatly hurt work with sections like the library being crippled most.
Mr. Muntoyera has for a while been the only personnel manning the IG library but he too will soon be out of the job. He is soon leaving as the only Librarian after management and Board ratified the decision for him to be ousted on grounds of frailty and old age. He was given a one-year notice within which to prepare his exit and he now remains with 6 months to go.
But ironically, there are employees who are way older than him who haven’t been threatened with similar termination on grounds of age. Library is important for the IG because it’s where lawyers access court decisions as part of their research and court preparations especially in the case of very old cases and court decisions contained in the old volumes.
Some of the employees who have resigned in the past few years largely protesting failure to attract any salary increment in the last 10 years include; Kenneth Byarugaba, Claire Ninsiima, Bagambe and Amanyire Edward. Most of the quitters the IG institution has lost are senior and middle level employees though sometime back even people in top management protested remuneration disparities and almost downed their tools.
A source close to Finance Minister Matia Kasaija says when the President sanctioned the doubling of IGG Irene Mulyagonja’s salary from Shs18m to Shs36m, her two deputies were left out and this led to polarisis and disgruntlement that caused them to keep away from work in order to create time moving around to lobby for similar increment. The two deputies, Finance Ministry sources say, frequented level 7 where they personally lobbied Kasaijja and PSST Keith Muhakanizi to equally double their pay.
That is how theirs too was enhanced from Shs16m to Shs32m per month which they now earn as gross salary. Feeling alienated by their boss Mulyagonja, who got the President’s nod to her own increment without doing the same for them, the two deputies equally lobbied Public Service Minister Muruli Mukasa and his PS Catherine Birakwate Musingwire to consider their plea for a proportionate increment which they gratefully got as well. Seeing the three top figures enjoying to their exclusion has continued to greatly disgruntle many staffers at the IG.
At the commencement of her land inquiry, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire sought some manpower support from the IG and some lawyers were assigned to help her commission work take off. It was a temporary assignment but some of the lawyers have lately been reluctant to return to the IG where low pay is awaiting them.
The lawyers, who have exceeded the original time they were meant to stay on the land inquiry, include Katwesigye and a one Ochwo. The duo is equally affected by the general outcry at the Inspectorate that employees have stagnated on the same salary without any increment for the last 10 years when Faith Mwondha still headed the institution.
This is something some (like Kenneth Byarugaba, Claire Ninsiima, Bagambe and Amanyire Edward) have protested by leaving the Inspectorate ostensibly for greener pastures elsewhere.
Yet that isn’t all. In the last 10 months, the following have also exited employment at the Inspectorate; Daisy Oundo and Bakubi Irene (was the IG’s only Quantity Surveyor). Saying working for so little made no big difference, Ms Bakubi opted to keep at home as she looks around for better opportunities. Having own surveyor was important and value addition to the IG work because depending on external surveyors is way much more costly.
Other employees that are no longer with the Inspectorate include Ekweru Innocent who was the only Civil Engineer the institution relied on to investigate shoddy works.
Namiyonga Olivia also exited as did a one Hazel Kyagenda, Julius Mukholi (who ironically accepted a less paying job offer with the Finance Ministry arguing it was okay as long as he had job security and a less stressful work environment), Ceaser Kagoro, Sarah Nabirye, Nambi Kezia and Ikomolot Mercy. A one Ntaro also resigned and now works with the Ministry of Local Government where he earns about half the salary he used to earn at the IG. He argued it wasn’t just about money but the aggregate working environment and the feeling of job security.
Sources close to him say, line Minister and political supervisor Simon Lokodo is wondering why such resignations, that were rare in the past, have lately been on the increase at the IG. Perhaps seeking similar answers, the Mulyagonja-led management recently engaged a consultant to advise on the best way to motivate staff and retain them for long while boosting their pride and self-esteem towards working for the Inspectorate.
One of the aggrieved employees said majority colleagues in his circle are actually actively looking for new jobs while hanging in there. “Personally, I’m comfortable compared to where I worked before but I don’t know why my colleagues here are full of dissatisfaction,” remarked the young man working as one of the many investigators at the IG. “It’s strange and very intriguing that even senior and mid-level officers are equally disgruntled yet those are the people I would expect to be happiest eyeing the next promotion.”
Some of the former employees told Mulengera News there are things they found strange at the IG including not being able to ask for and obtain any advance in case one gets an emergency yet this is commonly permitted in most organizations around town.
But it’s the case of former Director Operations Hajji Abon Muzamir (who Mulyagonja says left in 2016) that continues to demoralize many staffers at the Inspectorate. Having worked at the IG since the days of pioneer IGG Augustine Ruzindana, he was asked to leave the Inspectorate and left in total disgrace after being vaguely accused of lack of integrity. Mulyagonja refutes this set of facts and told Mulengera News in a recent interview that Abon voluntarily declined contract renewal.
The aggrieved employees maintain that Abon remained a haunted man even after leaving the Inspectorate. That on being forced out, after his pleas that he had two wives and many kids to look after were ignored, Abon retreated to his native Rhino Camp in Arua district where he was made Chairman DSC pending approval by Public Health Commission in Kampala. Employees say that at that time, the PSC was being represented on the IG Board by Jamilah Kamulegeya who vehemently objected to his nomination for the DSC job. Former workmates say the man grassed like he had never given any useful service to the GoU. That some people at the Inspectorate corroborated Kamulegeya’s claims by writing a dossier to PSC disputing Abon’s integrity.
It was only recently when he got a job at Parliament of Uganda where he now works and his sad story continues demoralizing many employees at the Inspectorate and it partly explains some of these departures of staff. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
