KCCA staff locked in fight for jobs

Kampala- Scramble for jobs at City Hall have continued to haunt Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and there is increasing discontent among the technical team, Daily Monitor has established.

The latest fight has been triggered by some technical officers who accuse management of sidestepping them by appointing their ‘juniors’ to work in senior positions in acting capacity.

Daily Monitor has learnt that some aggrieved staff have been holding back and forth meetings with Kampala Affairs minister Beti Kamya to resolve the friction.

According to the payroll structure, a copy of which this newspaper has seen, KCCA employs 1,133 workers. But 391 are on permanent employment while 742 are on temporary terms. The staff on temporary employment serve a four-month renewable contract.

Concerns
Some of the aggrieved workers, who declined to be named, wondered why management was taking ‘too long’ to advertise the vacant positions so that competent staff can compete rather than handpicking individuals to hold offices in acting capacity.

“There are some staff who have been holding offices in acting capacity for the last three years. This is very unfair because such a practice undermines some of us who would have applied for such positions if they were advertised. What management does is to keep people in those positions for a long time yet some workers are more qualified than those holding such offices,” one supervisor said.

Another official at the level of manager said: “How can the institution leave some employees to hold offices in acting capacity for more than two years without advertising the jobs so that there is open competition? Parliament and IGG should interest themselves in KCCA’s recruitment process.”

Minister Kamya told Daily Monitor yesterday that the controversy of recruitment was being handled by Ministry of Public Service but added that she needed to crosscheck how far the process had reached.

No attention given
Mr Ralph Ochan, the Public Service Commission chairperson, told Daily Monitor by telephone yesterday that while the KCCA recruitment issue was brought to their attention, the commission had not looked into it yet.

“That KCCA issue needs time because we have to review each job holder carefully to see if they are competent for it and also review documents of all temporary staff. We don’t want to punish staff for the mistakes which they didn’t do and we need to ascertain how the irregularities arose,” he said.

Mr Ochan blamed KCCA for the cumulative number of temporary staff without following right procedures. He noted that keeping employees on a four-month contract reduces their efficiency because they are not sure of whether they will be laid off or retained.
Mr Ochan also said he was not sure when the process of looking into the KCCA recruitment controversy will commence because the commission is currently handling employment related issues of other government bodies.

The KCCA payroll shows there are 86 employees who are holding offices in acting capacity and receive salaries commensurate with those respective positions.

The executive director, deputy executive director and directors are appointed by the President on recommendation of Public Service while the rest of staff are appointed by the Public Service Commission.
The payroll shows that KCCA currently spends Shs352m monthly in allowances for staff holding offices in acting capacity. This means in a year, KCCA spends about Shs30.2 billion in allowances per year on the 86 staff who are holding offices in acting capacity.

Time limit
Early this year, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Service, Ms Catherine Bitarakwate, said a public officer must hold an office in acting capacity for only six months.

Currently, the KCCA executive director, deputy executive director, and other five directors from the directorates of engineering, treasury, legal, revenue and health are some of the top officials holding offices in acting capacity.

The KCCA spokesperson, Mr Peter Kaujju, said there are staffing gaps at City Hall that need to be filled.
He said the issue is being handled by the Public Service Commission.

According to KCCA’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report dated December 13, 2018, a copy of which Daily Monitor has seen, 280 candidates passed interviews to fill certain positions at KCCA in 2013.

However, the report states that only 45 candidates were offered jobs while the rest are still waiting despite being given appointment letters by the Public Service Commission.

“…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,” the PAC report reads in part.

The report also criticises the KCCA recruitment of workers who are currently on contract basis on grounds that it was illegally done.

The PAC report adds that there were no application letters on the file, no advert for the positions to be filled, no job description, no roles and responsibilities were provided at the time of interviews.
It also observed that the interview reports indicated that the interviewers were not aligned to the position that applicants were being interviewed for.

Some KCCA temporary staff, according to the PAC report, often continued to work and got paid even when their contracts had expired. At one time, contracts were renewed five months after expiry.

No budget
Mr Kaujju said all the people recruited by Public Service earlier were not put on payroll in the beginning because there was no corresponding budget.

“…they have, however, been recalled to express their availability. The plan is to have those interested start work by July 31, 2019. Regularisation for staff on temporary basis is mandate of the Public Service Commission,” he said.

The Kampala Lord Mayor, Mr Erias Lukwago, said the matter will be handled in the next council meeting on May 8.
“We asked the committee of Human Resource to study the matter and compile a report on the same. We expect this report to be tabled in our next council meeting,” he said.

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