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Mulemwa out, Biribonwa in as PAU gets new board
Incoming PAU board chair, Ms Lynda Biribonwa (Left) Outgoing PAU board chairperson, Dr Jane Mulemwa (Right)
Courtsey/PAU
What you need to know:
The seven-member board is led by Ms Lynda Biribonwa, an environmental management systems auditor, replacing Dr Jane Mulemwa whose second four-year term from May 2015 ended in May.
Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa will today induct the new Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) board of directors at the ministry’s headquarters in Kampala.
PAU is the statutory body mandated to regulate all aspects of the oil sector. The authority is one of the three bodies responsible for stewarding Uganda’s oil sector, alongside its parent Ministry of Energy and the Uganda National Oil Company (Unoc).
The seven-member board is led by Ms Lynda Biribonwa, an environmental management systems auditor, replacing Dr Jane Mulemwa whose second four-year term from May 2015 ended in May.
Ms Biribonwa holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Management and Business Administration from Keele University, a Master’s of Science in Environment and Development from the University of Reading, and a Master’s in Business Administration in Oil and Gas from CWS School of Energy, London, UK.
Other members are; Mr Bernand Ongodia, the principal of the Uganda Petroleum Institute Kigumba and former principal geophysicist in Ministry of Energy; lawyer Innocent Kihika; Mr Adrian Mulindwa Bukenya, the country director of Mastercard Foundation; Ms Solome Galiwango, a renewable energy specialist; and Ms Mary Oduka Ochan, a finance specialist; and Makerere University Business School economics don Vincent Bagire.
President Museveni forwarded the names of the septet to Parliament in May. They appeared before the appointments committee on May 30 chaired by Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa.
The new board comes at a time when the authority is contending with budgetary constraints that encumbered, among others, filling positions to the established capacity of 280, which in turn impacts on monitoring the sector at the time when the oil project is at take-off stage.
In February 2022, the government and the oil companies announced the Final Investment Decision (FID) for Uganda’s $10b (Shs37 trillion) oil project.
The oil project encompasses the $4b (Shs15) trillion East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), $4b Tilenga development project operated by French TotalEnergies EP, and the $2b Kingfisher Development Area operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
PAU particularly plays an oversight role in ensuring strict adherence to standards and work plans by the oil companies and their subcontractors to avoid costly overruns.
Since the announcement of FID, the authority has green lit contracts worth an estimated $7.16b (Shs26 trillion), of which $1.8b (Shs6.6 trillion) in tenders were awarded to Ugandan companies.
The oil authority also regulates employment in the oil sector, which estimates show currently employs 13,067 individuals, with 11,752 (90 percent) being Ugandans.
