MPs grill ministry officials over new UPPC board

Legislators on the Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) on Wednesday tasked officials from the Ministry of Presidency to explain the process followed to appoint the new eight members to Uganda Printing and Publishing Corporation (UPPC) board.

The new board members are Mr Joachim Buwembo, Mr Sadat Kisuyi, Ms Jolly Kagumira Kaguhangire and Ms Alice N.K. Muhoozi. The others on the list submitted to Parliament on Tuesday are Mr Andrew Kibaya, Ms Hellen Icumar Judith, Mr Jimmy Karugaba and Mr Noor Bukenya.

But the committee headed by Mr Joel Ssenyonyi (Nakawa West) was specifically concerned about how Ms Kamuhangire made it to the list considering allegations that she had been cited in corruption scandals during her tenure as the Executive Director of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA).
 It is alleged that the same scandals informed the reason for her sacking, something the legislators argued would bar her from being appointed to the UPPC board.

Lawmakers were also surprised to learn that the Ministry of Presidency only got knowledge of this on Tuesday, just hours after Minister Milly Babalanda submitted the list of the names, said to have been approved by Cabinet, to the committee.
“She was cleared by security and new information came in yesterday [Tuesday] that was actually charged before. Now that the new information came, we tasked her to ensure that she brings new evidence that she was cleared of the charges,” Mr Herbert Atuhaire, the head of the human resource department at the ministry, said.

The Permanent Secretary at the said Ministry, Mr Yunus Kakande said: “As a person, I didn’t know Ms Jolly [Kamugira Kamuhangire], so I saw the name and I never commented because I didn’t know about her. So we send the names to the security organisations to carry out checks. But yesterday is when I got to know that she was at one time working with Uganda Investment Authority and she had issues there,” he added.
But Mr Ssenyonyi accused the officials of deliberately being untruthful in their submissions since prior submissions by Minister Babalanda indicated that thorough background checks had been run on all new board appointees.

“Even by going to Google search and you type in a name, all of this information does come. So I am surprised that you people got for the first time yesterday and yet you involved ISO,” he said.
To this end, the committee insisted that a thorough investigation on the matter be carried out.