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IGG clears export body to restructure
Employees hand over boxes of packaged pineapples among other items for export. The IGG’s office has concluded investigating allegations about the Uganda Export Promotion Board. PHOTO BY RACHEL MABALA
What you need to know:
For the last two years, the export body which is supposed to have more than 50 employees to carry out its role of facilitating the development, diversification, promotion and coordination of all export-related activities in country, has been operating with only 16 staff members of which five were technical staff, Prosper Magazine’s Dorothy Nakaweesi writes.
The Inspector General of Government (IGG) has cleared and lifted the restructuring exercise of Uganda Export Promotion Board (UEPB) which it had halted nearly two years ago.
In 2014, IGG recommended that UEPB Board of Directors (BoD) recruit a substantive executive director to finalise the restructuring of the export body.
However, the government watch-dog received complaints from the former employees who alleged that the process was marred with irregularities.
This prompted the IGG’s office to investigate the allegations to which it released a report on September 7, lifting the restructuring exercise among other recommendations.
The summary report signed by Justice Irene Mulyagonja partly reads: “This is to inform you that the order of this office concerning the restructuring and related activities issued to the executive director at the commencement of this investigation is hereby lifted and process of restructuring should be concluded.”
For the last two years, the export body which is supposed to have more than 50 employees to carry out its role of facilitating the development, diversification, promotion and coordination of all export-related activities in country has been operating with only 16 staff members of which five were technical staff.
Responding to the IGG’s report and recommendations, Mr Elly Twineyo Kamugisha in an interview with Prosper magazine said: “We thank the IGG for releasing the report and clearing us of any fault.”
He added: “I was hired to rebrand UEPB and finalise the restructuring of the institution and that is what I will continue to do supported by the new board,” Kamugisha said.
Recommendations
Concerning allegations of filling positions in the new structures of UEPB some staff were unfairly treated. The findings indicated that there was no apparent evidence that the affected staff had been unfairly treated because none of them was short listed for the position.
The IGG recommended that the current BOD should review Section 1.6.4 of the HR Manual that illegally authorises the BOD to delegate its appointing authority function to the ED in order to bring it to conformity with Section 11(4) of the UEPB Act.
“BOD should validate and then ratify all appointments of UEPB serving officers with running contracts illegally appointed by Mr Twineyo,” the report noted.
On whether UEPB BOD disregarded the advice of the Permanent Secretary, MTIC and hurriedly filled out the positions at UEPB.
In light of the findings of the report, IGG recommended that the current BOD should get technical assistance from the specialised Ministry of Public Service to assist it to prepare person specifications for all jobs at UEPB to avoid ambiguities as found by the investigation.
“The board should ensure that in future, all UEPB staff inclusive of those on probation sign performance plans that detail the specific outputs, performance indicators and performance targets to make appraisals more focused and meaningful,” the report recommended.
BOD overstepped its mandate by directing on procurement methodology.
Mr Twineyo lacked legal authority to initiate the procurement of services of the consultant since he was not accounting officer.
UEBP responses
UEPB management’s responding to the report they concurs with the findings on claims of unfair treatment.
However said appointments such as the senior export marketing executive were as a result of application for which it was applied twice.
“While the senior export marketing executive was not short-listed for the position of director for lack of minimum qualification, the official was short-listed for the lower position which the official qualified for and competed for. Therefore, there was no illegality in that appointment,” UEPB management responded.
UEPB Act in Section 8(g), says that the BOD can make or approve appointments; therefore the BOD delegation is in conformity with UEPB Act sec.8 (g).
UEPB management also observed in its response to the report that the IGG writes that BoD undermined the minister’s efforts.
“Yet, there is no letter from the Minister on restructuring. The minister wrote a letter appreciating the BoD for professionalism in restructuring (letter available). Later, in the IGG report; it was states that the BoD had powers to restructure and recruit,” UEPB management noted.
Exports status
Records from Bank of Uganda (BoU) show that the goods exports grew by 10.3 per cent from $2.66 billion (Shs9.5 trillion) in 2015 to $2.94 billion (Shs10.4 trillion) in 2016.
However Dr Adam Mugume, BoU’s director research said excluding gold, the value of exports declined by 1.1 per cent.
Uganda’s exports
Uganda’s export performance for 2016 improved compared to the previous calendar year.
Goods exports grew by 10.3 per cent from $2.66 billion (Shs9.5 trillion) in 2015 to $2.94 billion (Shs10.4 trillion) in 2016.
BoU Director Research Mr Adam Mugume said: “Excluding gold, value of exports declined by 1.1 per cent.”
While informal exports also slightly grew by 0.2 per cent from $399.1 million in 2015 to $399.7 million in 2016.
Imports on the other hand posted a 14.8 per cent decline from $4.95 billion in 2015 to $4.22 billion in 2016.
