A leaked confidential report by a tripatite committee constituted by President Museveni to investigate Bank of Uganda has concluded that the Governor, Prof. Tumusiime Mutebile abused his office and broke the law in making several appointments and promotions in a memo dated February 7, 2018.
The investigations followed complaints that Governor Mutebile appointed from outside the Bank without interviews and granted permanent and pensionable terms contrary to probationary policy.
It was also alleged that two of the new externally recruited staff; Dr Twinemanzi Tumubweine and Ms Kande Sabiiti lacked the minimum academic requirements for entering the bank.
“When Dr Tumubweine’s academic qualifications were considered alongside the prescribed requirements stipulated by the policy in the Administration Manual, it was found that his first degree was a pass degree.
It, therefore, fell below the standard requirement of 1st Class and Upper Second Honours and also below the standard set for exceptional circumstances which is Lower Second Honours degree,” the report says
The committee also noted that Dr Twinemanzi lacked experience in commercial banking as stipulated in the job description for Executive Director Supervision. There was no mention of any working experience relevant to commercial banking in his personal records at the Bank .
Additionally, Ruth Kande Sabiiti, who was recruited as Procurement Assurance Manager holds a basic pass degree with no honours in Social Sciences and therefore does not qualify to enter the bank in any official capacity.
The report further details how Mutebile created five new positions that did not exist on the approved structure of the Bank and that some appointees lacked job descriptions and proceeded to promote nine staff members to Assistant Director level without conducting interviews.
The report also found that the appointment of Tumubweinee was premised on nepotism, influence peddling and conflict of interest.
Although Mutebile defended the irregular appointments, promotions and demotions as falling well within his mandate as the Chairman of the BoU board and Governor who is given discretionary power to act on behalf of the Board whose tenure had expired during the period of appointments, the committee points to the building of cliques and internal fighting between the Governor and his deputy, Dr Louis Kasekende.
“The Governor explained that he had appointed new staff in accordance with Section 28(4) of the Bank of Uganda Act and also in line with authority granted to him by the Board of Directors on 30th May 2012.
The Governor claimed that the authority granted by the Board permitted him to take decisions on behalf of the Board in absence of a fully constituted Board whose term had expired on the 12th of November 2017,” the report reads in part.
According to the report, there was no indication of acknowledgement of receipt of any applications by the Bank in relation to all the cases for the externally recruited staff. Some of the recruited staff did not even remember when they submitted their applications while others were personally contacted by the Governor himself.
The report further accuses Mutebile of excessive use of power that even senior directors labour to advise him on policy and legal issues. Case in point is when the HR Director said that they could not call the Governor out on procedural matters as his memo seemed final.
“It was implied that there were previous occasions where the Governor had made decisions which were felt not to be consistent with the law and internal policies but due to the finality with which the decision was communicated the managers deemed it non-negotiable and simply implemented.”
The majority of the senior staff members interviewed tended to agree that there were factions or cliques in the Bank polarized around the positions of the Governor and the Deputy Governor.
“There is a risk of divisions according to religion in that Bank. Catholics and Anglicans have their own groups. They have meetings and each has its own power,” one staff told the investigating committee.
While appearing before the Committee chaired by Bugweri County MP, Abdu Kantuntu, Mutebile denied any wrongdoing saying that some of the appointees possessed “specialized skills” and were brought on board from specialized institutions.