It’s good that Mulyagonja and Mutebile are fighting

The governor and the ombudsman are engaged in a high-pitched institutional fight. That is not a bad thing.
The Inspectorate of Government led by Justice Irene Mulyagonja wants to undertake an investigative look into high level personnel changes that Governor Tumusiime-Mutebile carried out recently at the Bank of Uganda. The governor is having none of it. Inspector General of Government Mulyagonja is refusing to back off. Who is right and who is wrong? Lawyers are having a good time debating what the Constitution says about the extent of independence of each of the two public institutions in the execution of their roles.
President Museveni, who named each of the officials to their respective high positions, has weighed in via a meeting. It appears, from media reports, the IGG will only look at appointments the governor made of people from outside the Central Bank. So the dispute may be resolved administratively, via presidential edict, or through some legal process, or in combination.
Whichever way it ends, the quarrel is good and more such fights can be helpful. Broadly, institutional fights help clarify mandates, cutting back to size agencies that had accumulated too much power, and right-sizing those that had shrivelled.
In all this, who sits atop which institution counts. I can envisage a different IGG backing off at the first sign of pushback, and vice versa. A shrinking violet as IGG would in this case give a pass to the Central Bank boss to continue doing as he pleases. And a shrinking violet as governor would open the door for frequent investigations (read interference) by the Inspectorate of Government. One institution would conceivably emerge stronger, the other weaker.
Yet what we want are strong and competent public agencies. Given the two strong personalities tussling it out now, we could end up with both institutions strengthened overall.
Who occupies an office is something that interests me because there are always consequences. Mr Barack Obama was president of the United States until January 2017. Now Mr Donald Trump holds the same job. Anyone who follows a little bit of American politics is certainly marvelling at how things moved under Mr Obama and how they are under Mr Trump. And what that means for the office, broader American politics, and possibly the world order.
Back here, President Museveni hogs all the power that matters. We have acquiesced in the process that has created a super-presidency. The consequences of this will come into full flower after Mr Museveni is no longer president. But today we can glimpse at what that the future world will look like. So far, no public institution really functions in a meaningfully independent way. It all circles around Mr Museveni.
But even within the context of a domineering presidency, individuals and institutions can still perform to an extent and stand out. NSSF was a perennial mess until Mr Richard Byarugaba stepped to the fore as chief in 2010. National Water has been lucky first with the reformist Mr William Muhairwe and now his protégé Dr Silver Mugisha. The same cannot be said of places like Civil Aviation Authority or Makerere University or Mulago Hospital (all blessed with lacklustre leadership for more than a generation). And KCCA under Ms Jennifer Musisi is losing steam really fast. If a leader can’t run a tight ship internally, such a leader can’t fight externally in defence of the institution’s mandate. External strength is a result of internal health.
I know of someone who took up a junior ministerial position with much enthusiasm. One of the common sense things he introduced was a requirement of departmental heads to hold a briefing meeting with him every Monday at 8am. The big men and women, career people, obeyed for only about three months. First, they were not used to coming to office that early. They are civil servants after all. Second, they were not used to weekly accounting of their work. They are civil servants after all.
Then they simply rebelled and told the minister he found them in the ministry and he will leave them there. He was neither the first nor the last to hold the position — anyway.
Instead of asserting himself and charming and coercing his underlings into submission, it is him who cut and run as soon as his authority was challenged. He is still in the ministry, but not taken that seriously. Can such a man fight an inter-ministerial battle? So, kudos to Mutebile and Mulyagonja. Bank of Uganda and the Inspectorate of Government may turn out the better off for your spat.

Bernard Tabaire is a media trainer and commentator on public affairs based in Kampala.
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Twitter:@btabaire