Perspective on Uganda Airlines, Cosase interface
Ambrose Nampwera
These recent weeks gave us some good news cycles, but none like the investigation by Parliament into the operations of the national carrier, the Uganda Airlines.
Since the seemingly charismatic and widely exciting plan to revive the defunct airline in 2016; and the eventual relaunch three years later in 2019, Uganda Airlines has been a catchy topic in the news media.
So, when Parliament’s Committee On Commissions, State Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) teased on social media about the impending probe into the airline top management officials and board, I knew that we were in for something.
Within the first two days of the hearing, bomb shell headline after another were flooding from the committee. By Thursday evening, we heard that the airline chief executive officer (CEO), Ms Jennifer Bamuturaki was handed over to Parliamentary Police along with her predecessor Ephraim Bagenda to record statements over matters of conflict of interest, and for making contradictory statements before the committee.
In brief, the MPs established in the hearings that Ms Bamuturaki never applied for, nor had requisite academic papers for the airline CEO position. She was rather appointed to the position on the directive of the Minister of Transport, who also got the orders from the President.
At the time of the appointment, the MPs were told, Ms Bamuturaki had a single undergraduate Social Work Degree from Makerere University. But on being prodded further the following day, it turned out she couldn’t prove this degree either, as she told the committee that since she graduated in 1994, she never retrieved her academic transcript. She also had “lost her UCE result slip.”
These revelations of course set up a frenzy in the public discourse, but what was really fascinating to see, is a group of people that stood up in defence of Ms Bamuturaki. Their arguments went along these lines: she is a victim of an overzealous legislative arm, she is apt and qualified for the job with more than two decades of experience in the hospitality and aviation fields and, therefore, doesn’t need the academic transcripts, and she is currently doing a great job at the airline so far.
Neither of the arguments is remotely true. Her defenders want us to focus on the skills, and look away from the academic background, some even drawing comparisons to other politicians who studied Music, Dance and Drama (MDD) and were running for president.
But they conveniently leave out that those politicians with their MDD and Senior Six papers are duly qualified by law, to run for those offices, and those who won elections without the requisite papers, we have seen them being thrown out of office by courts of law.
Ms Bamuturaki on the other hand was not qualified. The advertisement for her job required in addition to an honors undergraduate degree, for the candidates to possess post graduate training in administration or any other business related course.
What about the claims that she has “transformed the airline?” No one has showed us the numbers on that yet. The numbers that we do have in the two years that she worked at the airline, including as acting CEO, tell us that it accumulated losses in excess of Shs260 billion.
The airline has also been caught in dozens of illegal procurements, some of which Ms Bamuturaki is directly involved. In this very hearing at Parliament for instance, we know that she was questioned about her decision to hire a private advertising and branding company belonging to her relative at Shs2 billion. Not to mention the ceaseless scandals and brutal internal fights she was involved in which culminated in the firing of her predecessor.
So, granted; Ms Bamuturaki beat some odds to join an exclusive group of female big company heads, but the arguments being made in her defence are abstruse and nothing more; their purpose is to blind us to the obvious corruption that she represents.
Mr Ambrose Nampwera is a political analyst
