Fights over ED job at UIA exposed as Mukiza defends Sh545m honorarium pay

There is a silent but raging war within the corridors of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA).

It is a battle for the position of Executive Director currently held by Robert Mukiza.

The UIA ED job is a four year contract and renewable once, upon approval by the Board.

Mukiza was appointed in July 2021. This implies his first term will end in July 2025 and even eligible for a second one.

However, apparently some people within and outside UIA are strategizing for the same position and some are reportedly fighting hard to fail Mukiza by either not finishing his first term or to have his contract not renewed next year.

We are told one of those positioning for the same job is outgoing UIA Board member and Chair Morrison Rwakakamba.

According to UIA’s Investment Code Act of 2019, members of the Board can hold office for not more than three years and are eligible for re-appointment for one further term only.

Rwakakamba first served as a Board member and in June 2021 became the Chairman.

His statutory term of office ended on May 31^st, 2024.

Sources now say after testing the good things at UIA, he is reportedly now strategizing for a comeback and this time as the Executive Director.

Sources further told us that Rwakakamba has blessings of some Board members at UAI and some officials at Finance Ministry led by Minister Evelyne Anite.

We are told some officials at UIA and others in the Ministry of Finance are also eyeing the same position but this is a story for another day.

CORRUPTION SAGAS

For the last two years, there have been several allegations of corruption and mismanagement at UIA under Mukiza led management from suspicious whistleblowers which even saw the IGG officials raid the authority early this year.

Sources say all these point to the power struggles meant to paint the UIA current management as inefficient and corrupt. And in the wider scheme of things, the proponents expect the ED-Mukiza to pay the price by being fired or not having his contract renewed.

The plan is reportedly to expose the Mukiza led administration as much as possible.

It should be noted that Mukiza’s immediate predecessor, Jolly Kamugira Kaguhangire was also in 2019 herded out of UIA before the end of her four year contract after Board members ganged against her over allegations of abuse of office, incompetence, gross insubordination, irregular recruitment (nepotism) and concealment.

SH545M HONORARIUM PAY SAGA

On June 14, through her X handle, Minister Anite tweeted: “This corruption in government must stop. Thank you UIA chairman @Rwakakamba & Board members for refusing to grant permission to @ugandainvest staff to pay themselves UGX 500m Honoraria out of loan meant for Namanve infrastructure development. Ensure the money they took is refunded.” The tweet was accompanied by letters over the same matter.

Anite had on 12th June, 2024 directed the UIA to management to return Shs 545M they paid to themselves as ‘honoraria payment’ off the loan-funded Kampala Industrial Park Development (KLDP) project.

On December 4, 2019, the Ugandan government secured €219, 482, 727, 15 (about sh871b) from UK Export Finance (UKEF) to finance the project.

Of the sh545m honorarium, Mukiza got sh82m, Dr. Paul Kyalimba sh58m, Patience Kyabaje sh43m, John Bwambale sh43m, Amina Nassaka sh17m, Susanne Akware sh17m, Joanita Kambedhe sh8m, Mwanga Muzamil sh5m and Augustine Katale sh5m.

Others on the project management team (PMT) include Alex Nuwagira, who was paid sh92m, Felix Tumukunde Beinemaryo sh55m, Emmanuel Muhumuza sh49m, William Sande sh36m and Dominic Mugesera sh30m.

Not to escalate matters, Mukiza has offered to return the money.

MUKIZA DEFENDS THE PAY

Mukiza insists this was a justified pay only to be interpreted by Minister Anite in her own way.

In a statement to UIA Board dated June 14, 2024, Mukiza explained that upon termination of the owner’s engineer (OE) on August 29, 2022, additional responsibilities were assigned to the project management team (PMT) assisted by some UIA staff to bridge the gap in the supervision of the infrastructure development at KIBP.

He said the project manager of the infrastructure development at KIBP in consultation with him made a proposal to the UIA board, which sat and approved that the agency’s management consider remunerating the staff for their additional responsibilities and guided them to execute it within the law.

Following the board’s approval, management ensured that the PMT staff were assigned roles and responsibilities of the OE to supervise the project.

They also ensured that the roles and responsibilities of UIA staff in assisting the PMT to undertake the OE’s roles and responsibilities were given, the statement, a copy of which this publication has seen and confirmed by Mukiza, said.

The terms of reference were the staff’s deliverables, which were beyond their employment duties and, therefore, extraordinary, Mukiza told the UIA Board.

Mukiza also explained that the UIA management considered section 3.28 of the Human Resource Manual (HRM) on the applicable allowance in line with the employer’s project governance and management structure.

Section 3.28 of the approved HRM stipulates that honorarium is an allowance payable when UIA wants a particular piece of work to be carried out by an employee within a specified period of time, which is exceptionally important to UIA and is outside the normal scope of the employee’s official duties.

It also states that honorarium shall be paid on satisfactory completion of the assignment and explains how it is computed.

SELECTING STAFF

Mukiza also said that the UIA staff were chosen based on their roles and that the contract provides project management costs as a provision sum in the contract.

“Provisional sums are to be spent on instructions by the employer. Therefore, this item caters to management costs,” he told the UIA Board.

Mukiza also noted that an honorarium, like any other allowance, is subject to statutory deductions of the Pay As You Earn and the employee’s contribution to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) of 5%.

He said this is in accordance with section 19 (1) (a) of the Income Tax Act Cap 340 and the NSSF Act and that the statutory deductions were instructed to be deducted at source.

Mukiza also said OE was earning €313,298.58 (about sh1.2b), which translates to €104,432.86 (about sh414m) per month.

“The OE would have earned €626,597.16 (about sh2.4b) in the period [of] September 2022 to February 2023. The paid honoraria for the same period totals €124,822.63 (about sh495m), hence a saving of €501,774.53 (about sh1.9b),” he said.

Mukiza also noted that when they did this work, the Government saved €1,497,864 (about sh5.9b) over the period the employers’ representative’s procurement was ongoing.

“The process of procuring the OE continued in accordance with the board’s decision which was concluded and the OE is in place. The decision of the board actually saved the institution €1,497,864.”

Is this new development part of the broader plan by those scheming for the UIA ED job to paint the Mukiza led administration as corrupt to justify his removal as ED or not to renew his contract?

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