Government orders KCCA to advertise jobs

Kampala. The Public Service Commission (PSC) has ordered the acting executive director of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), Mr Andrew Kitaka, to advertise all vacant positions in the institution to ensure formalisation and work efficiency.
The PSC chairperson, Justice Ralph Ochan, made the directive in an April 18 letter.
“All vacant posts, including but not limited to those where officers were administratively assigned duties to act be declared and displayed on KCCA notice boards, website and any other platform accessible to all KCCA staff,” the letter reads in part.

“All staff be informed and guided to apply for a maximum of two posts of their own choice clearly indicating the first and second choices on the application form and KCCA management will then compile, coordinate, guide the exercise appropriately and thereafter submit the application forms to the relevant authority for processing,” the letter adds.
Justice Ochan also asked Mr Kitaka to halt assignments on acting capacity or administrative appointments on short term contracts until the affected positions are substantively filled.

KCCA’s payroll structure, a copy which this newspaper has seen, indicates that the institution currently employs 1,133 workers.
Of these, 391 are employed on permanent terms.
The staff on temporary terms serve a four-month renewable contract but their recruitment remains a point of contention to date.
Mr Kitaka could not be reached for a comment regarding the directive.
However, the acting supervisor public and corporate affairs in the office of the executive director, Mr Robert Kalumba, told Daily Monitor that their directorate of human resource would handle the matter.

“I have not seen the letter, but I am sure our human resource department is in liaison with Public Service Commission on that issue,” he stated.
Last month, this newspaper reported that some KCCA officials had petitioned Kampala minister Beti Kamya, accusing management of elbowing them by appointing their ‘juniors’ to work in senior positions in acting capacity.

Last year, the authority working on the directive of PSC, called all successful candidates who were not deployed in 2013 to meet management for fresh deployment.
Our source within KCCA’s top management intimated that while some of the candidates had successfully challenged KCCA in court for locking them out, at least 130 candidates of candidates who didn’t go to court have expressed interest to start work.
The candidates, our source revealed, will commence work on July 1.

Report findings
According to the institution’s Public Accounts Committee (Pac) report released in December last year, a total of 280 candidates passed interviews to fill certain positions at KCCA in 2013. However, the report states only 45 candidates were offered positions while the rest are still pending despite being offered appointment letters by PSC.
“The positions for which they had applied for were filled by other individuals whose recruitment didn’t follow the formal recruitment procedures and have held the same positions for a period exceeding one year as they are given temporary four months renewable contracts,” reads in part the report.

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