Inside the fights, sackings at govt printers

Members of board of directors of Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC) have hit back at the Presidency minister, accusing her of unfair treatment, sacking without giving them the chance to respond to a string of allegations levelled against them.
The board members say Ms Milly Babirye Babalanda acted on rumours and allegations and refused to listen to them, thereby denying them a fair hearing.
The accusations come after the minister last week suspended the board members on allegations of embezzlement of the corporation funds, abuse of office and causing financial loss to government.
But Mr Vincent Kityamuweesi Musubire, the UPPC board chairperson, in an August 21 letter to Ms Babalanda, said the minister arrived unannounced at the corporation offices in Entebbe on August 18, ‘with a biased mind’ and refused to listen to a presentation the board had prepared.
The presentation reportedly contained a status report on the state of affairs at the corporation, and the board had hoped would help alley the charges against them.
But inside sources at UPPC say the minister, who seemed to have been well-briefed and under strict directive, would have none of the explanations by the board.
She reportedly spent less than 30 minutes within which a decision to fire the board had been taken and communicated.
Mr Musubire said it was unfortunate that with such grave allegations of embezzlement of funds, abuse of office and causing of final loss, the minister chose not to listen to their side of the story.
“In fact, I was surprised when I received information upon your visit on August 18 to the UPPC offices and refusing to listen to presentation from the corporation that I had earlier prepared and requested to be presented on my behalf due to my ill health. Instead, you opted to suspend the board on allegations at a time when the economy is struggling to mitigate economic impacts occasioned by Covid-19. It would seem you gave fair hearing to the allegers and not your team in place,” Mr Musubire wrote.
In the letter copied to the President, the vice president, the minister for Finance, Planning and Economic Development, and the Attorney General, the board attached a copy of the said report.
The letter, a copy of which Sunday Monitor has accessed, titled ‘Report on UPPC; highlighting accomplishments, successes, and revenues of UPPC for the period, 2016/17; 2018/19; 2019/20; 2020/21’, spotlights some of the board’s achievements over a period of four financial years.
Despite the reported performance, Ms Babalanda wasted no time in firing the entire nine-member board, the UPPC chief executive, and the corporation secretary.
On the same day, August 18, after delivering her verbal sacking at the UPPC head offices in Entebbe, minister Babalanda wrote to the secretary, Office of the President, directing him to “… urgently plan for a caretaker staff in the positions of managing director and company secretary as the investigations go on.”  
She also wrote: “I have directed the Uganda Police Criminal Investigations Department to investigate the alleged corruption at UPPC.”
The letter named those implicated in the claims of corruption as the board members, the managing director, and the company secretary, among others.
Minister Babalanda would invoke Section 6 of the UPPC Act, 1999, to suspend the board members in order to pave way for investigations.
Indeed, only six days later, on August 24, Ms Babalanda confirmed her swing of the axe and interdicted UPPC managing director, the internal auditor, and the company secretary. She then appointed Mr James Tweheyo as the caretaker managing director.
“I have today officially interdicted the managing director, the company secretary, and the internal auditor to pave way for investigations into allegations of corruption and other irregularities. In the meantime, Mr James Tweheyo has been appointed as caretaker managing director,” Ms Babalanda tweeted shortly after firing the trio.
By press time, we were unable to reach out to both Prof Tom Davis Wasswa, the interdicted managing director, and Ms Moreen Nyakato, the company secretary. But Prof Wasswa’s lawyer said his [Prof Wasswa’s] phone had been confiscated by the CID officers at Kibuli, while Ms Nyakato’s phone rang unanswered. Our several efforts to contact Ms Babalanda for this story were also unsuccessful by press time.
Root of the woes at UPPC
Trouble for the board and management reportedly started in January when the board accused Mr Aristaco Kasekende Mujuzi, the then finance and administration manager, of professional negligence, conflict of interest and causing financial loss to the corporation.
Subsequently, on January 29, the management invited Mr Kasekende for a disciplinary hearing and to defend himself against the allegations.
The board reportedly found Mr Kasekende culpable and in its sitting of March 2, decided to terminate his employment.
On the same day, Mr Musubire, the board chairperson, wrote to Mr Kasekende, communicating the board’s decision to terminate his employment.
Sources at UPPC told this newspaper that Mr Kasekende warned he would fight back.
But soon after the fallout, a whistleblower compiled a damaging dossier on ‘state of affairs at the Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation, Entebbe’.
Sources within UPPC say the bone of contention could be over deals that UPPC struck, when Mr Kasekende was still in-charge of finance and administration. The sources say UPPC had won a contract to supply election-related materials to the Electoral Commission, but by the time the money was paid to UPPC, Mr Kasekende had been fired. The sources say it is this procurement deal that could have gone sour and sparked off the fights at UPPC.
Police investigations
Prior to Ms Babalanda’s fateful call at the UPPC head offices in Entebbe, and resultant suspension of the board, she had instructed the police CID to investigate the members and prosecute where enough evidence pins them on the alleged corruption and abuse of office.
Subsequently, on August 17, Mr Tawu Bumali, the CID officer at Kibuli, summoned the implicated board members to appear before the investigators on August 23. In the letter addressed to Mr Musubire, Mr Tawu listed board members Thomas Matende, Edgar Agaba, Florence Otto, John Lorot, Godfrey Bakibinga, and Aisha Sanyu Kakaire as those who had to appear before the investigators.
“The purpose of this letter is to invite you and others listed below to CID headquarters before the office of the acting commissioner for Economic Crimes and Financial Intelligence on August 23 at 10am for interviewing and statement recording,” the summons read in part.
But when the team reported on the appointed date, they were told that an order had been issued ‘from above’ that they should be interviewed on another date.
But some of the board members, who had showed up, protested the move, saying they had travelled long distances from upcountry and could not return without recording statements.
Immediately the following day, on August 24, Ssekaana Associates Advocates & Consultants, the law firm representing the accused, wrote to Ms Grace Akullo, the CID director, protesting the ‘unfair treatment’ of their clients.  
They copied the letter to both the secretary in the Office of the President, and to the Attorney General.
The law firm accused Mr Tawu of taking orders from strangers on how to proceed with his investigations against their clients.
The accused said when they reached the CID headquarters, the officer who had summoned them, told them that he had received instructions from an official from the office of the Presidency ministry that they should not be interrogated that day.
They claimed that in their presence, the CID officer called the official, who they claimed directed the CID officer to inform those summoned to appear on another day.
“Our clients were shocked that your good office is working under the instructions of other individuals and is, therefore, partial and unprofessional. Our clients are also in great fear as strange people have kept trailing them and visiting their homes since the summons were issued to them, making them apprehensive that the same people who are instructing your officers are behind this move. We, therefore, implore your good office to prevail over your officers to ensure investigations are done professionally,” the law firm wrote.
In another twist of events, Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, in response to Ms Babalanda’s urgent queries on the legality of her action and questions about the board sitting on a weekend, wrote that it was legal for the UPPC board to sit on any day, including a weekend, and at any place as they deem fit as long as there are five of the nine members present to conduct UPPC business.
But Mr Kiryowa also comforted the minister that her decision to suspend the board was legal as provided for under Section 6 of UPPC Act, 1999.
But the Attorney General also warned the minister that “…the rules of natural justice dictate that you give the affected members of the board a right to a fair hearing and the investigations into these matters should not exceed four weeks as prescribed by the Employment Act, 2006.”
Whistleblower account
The whistleblower, among other things, accuses the UPPC board of fraud involving supply of security stamps to Local Council I and II, saying while money was paid, no stamps were delivered.
The dossier also alleges fraud through Uganda Gazette, and failure to submit audited books of accounts, and underdealings in procurement of printing machines.
On  alleged fraud through Uganda Gazette, the whistleblower says Electoral Commission (EC) paid Shs1.6 billion for adverts in Uganda Gazette and part of the money was siphoned out as commission to a sales executive, and Shs222 million paid out and a tax of Shs14.2 million, totalling to Shs236 million.
The whistleblower also says in May, the EC paid out another Shs4.2 billion and Shs564.8m was also paid as commission, contrary to UPPC Act and regulation, which says no business executive shall be attached to walk-in adverts.
It also alleges that in July, EC paid out UPPC Shs10.4 billion and Shs1.5b as commission, totaling Shs2.3 billion as commission contrary to the policy.
UPPC Board’s defence
The board says on October 4, 2018, UPPC executed a joint venture agreement with Veridos GmbH and Giesecke + Devrient GmbH, a consortium to form the Uganda Security Printing Company Ltd (USPC), with UPPC owning 51 per cent of its shareholding, and Veridos GmbH controlling 49 per cent of the other shareholding.
The board says the company was incorporated to revamp and restructure UPPC.
“This shall be through the redesigning, developing, constructing, completing, testing and commissioning of an e-Passport factory and an ID card factory. The company is also charged with preserving the assets and business of UPPC in the joint venture company,” the report says.
The report also says the intention is to revamp UPPC to be able to fulfill its legal mandate as enshrined in the UPPC Act, which it has over the years struggled to achieve with little success.
“To carry this mandate, rather than dissolve UPPC, structural adjustments were made to create a new vehicle to carry this mandate. The company is also charged with the responsibility to preserve the assets and business of UPPC in the joint venture. This arrangement will be in operation for 15 years and thereafter, all operations will be handed back to UPPC for continuity. We are hopeful that once this strategy is properly implemented, UPPC will go a long way to meet its objectives and play its role in the development of our country,” the report prepared by the board states in part.
The board also said there has been improvement of the financial health of the corporation by turning it from a loss-making entity to a profitable corporation. The report says UPPC has realised a tremendous increase in average revenue of Shs4.5 billion, which represents more than 100 per cent increment in sales revenue for the reporting period of 2017/2018, 2018/2019, 2019/2020.
“The corporation has been able to report an operating profit of Shs1 billion during the year 2018/2019 compared to the initial loss of Shs1.4 billion from the previous year, 2017/2018.  In 2019/2020, the operating profit was Shs4.2 billion,” the report stated.
The report says UPPC has now emerged from a downward trend towards appreciation of corporate governance and that steady improvement in internal operations has been made.
The report says after an organizational review was conducted that helped to position and align staff for the strategic focus of the corporation, the board managed to remove redundancies and backdoor recruitments, paid full arrears and gratuity for the staff, and moved all those who stayed to three-year contract terms in November 2018.
“The team at UPPC is lean but more efficient. The board’s vision is to slowly increase numbers and create more employment opportunities in line with the NRM Manifesto 2016/2021, in future as the corporation’s operations increase,” the report says.
On the taxes, the board report says the tax burden on UPPC has reduced from Shs13.7 billion to Shs2.43 billion because of the robust strategic efforts to reduce the current tax burden such as appointment of external debt collectors and engagement with the national tax body URA [Uganda Revenue Authority] to come up with a payment schedule.
The report says for years, UPPC depended on obsolete printing machines and where complex work was expected, the company had to outsource, making the process very expensive. The report says to address these challenges, the board procured a number of equipment, including digital colour press, colour-fed printing equipment, computer paper-cutting machine, and a number of others.
“The board appreciated that an investment decision for an industrial digital colour press that uses ink and a five-colour commercial printing press of B1 size series would provide a good product market-fit that was desirous of the guaranteed markets from NGOs, government ministries, departments and its agencies, estimated to be half a trillion thus assuring the corporation of a good return on investment for a period of less than three years for the digital press, and five to seven years for the five-color commercial printing press,” the report says.