Kasese faces manpower crisis

Kasese. The Kasese District chairman, Mr Geoffrey Sibendire Bigogo, has asked for lowering of requirements for recruiting district engineers in order to attract professionals to work at the district.
According to Mr Bigogo, the district local government works department has for long been faced with manpower challenges because of strict requirements.
The minimum requirements for a district engineer include a degree in civil engineering, certificate of registration as a professional civil engineer and at least eight years work experience which include a minimum of five years as a civil engineer.

But Mr Bigogo argues that other requirements should be ignored if one has a relevant degree “because a salary of Shs1 million is too little for such work.”
Despite several adverts, Kasese has since early this year failed to attract a civil engineer to replace Mr Richard Baluku who left for Kyenjojo District.
During the council meeting last week, Mr Bigogo said works have stalled due to the absence of an engineer to run the department.

Appeal
“I want to tell you that we now have two positions; district senior engineer and chief finance officer that are not substantively appointed contrary to the Public Service requirements. We have run several adverts to have an engineer and CFO recruited but failed,” he said.
Mr Bigogo urged the chief administrative officer (CAO) to ask the Public Service Commission to lower the requirements especially for a district engineer. Mr Richard Bomera, a councillor representing Bulembia Division, advised that the chief administrative officer sponsors young graduates to acquire the required qualifications as one way of capacity building so that the position is filled.

But the CAO, Mr Turyahebwa Kafureka, said issues of qualifications under the Public Service Commission cannot be compromised. “There is no way you can negotiate about the standards,” he said.

[email protected]