PPDA seeks to amend age limit for top boss

The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) board was by press time last evening locked in intensive discussions on the human resource manual to amend the retirement age of an executive director.
The incumbent, Mr Benson Turamye, 59, is due to retire in two months when his current contract expires after clocking 60 years.
 He first served in the position in acting capacity from April 2017 and was appointed substantively in June 2019.

 The PPDA board chairperson, Mr Julius Ishungisa, told this newspaper earlier on Wednesday that no decision had yet been reached on the matter.
 “As the board, we will sit and discuss. I cannot say anything right now,” Mr Ishungisa said by telephone.

 Under the Public Standing Orders, 2021, and PPDA Human Resource Manual, permanent employees retire automatically after clocking 60 years.
 However, highly placed sources told this newspaper that the seven-member board convened yesterday to toy with the idea of whether to or not amend the retirement age; drawing on recent precedents set by both the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS).

 “Well, the problem of people not wanting to retire starts at the top in this country. But for small people, exceptions were made for [Patrick] Ayota who was brought back at NSSF after clocking the retirement age and [Dr Chris] Mukiza, who was given an extension at UBOS on grounds that he needed to deliver the census,” a source close to the board argued.
 In August last year, Labour minister Betty Amongi appointed Mr Ayota as the Workers Fund managing director after eight months of tightrope pulling for the position.  He previously served as deputy NSSF managing director from November 2017 to November 2022 when his contract and that of then managing director Richard Byarugaba expired but also after both clocking the retirement age of 60. 
The NSSF board recommended reappointment of the duo on guidance by the Attorney General, but Ms Amongi elected to only appoint Mr Ayota as deputy managing director for five years. Later in December 2022, Mr Ayota was appointed acting managing director. 

Last month, the UBOS board handed Dr Mukiza another five-year term ahead of this first contract expiring on March 30. 
The Uganda Bureau of Statistics Act states that the Finance minister on the recommendation of the board appoints the UBOS executive director.
 In the UBOS case, sources revealed, it was argued that it was “unhealthy to bring in a new person” at the helm in the middle of ongoing preparations to hold the national population and housing census slated for next month from May 9.
 
Guidance sought
Earlier on March 6, the PPDA board wrote to the Attorney General, Mr Kiryowa Kiwanuka, the government’s legal advisor, seeking guidance on Mr Turamye’s contract extension, a matter that has already sparked jitters inside the offices of PPDA at Plot 39, Nakasero Road.
 The board reasoned that while the PPDA human resource manual provides for the retirement age of permanent staff to be 60 years, and Mr Turamye shall have clocked 60 on June 9, when his current contract expires, the PPDA Act only spells out appointment of the executive director for a two-term tenure but remains silent on retirement.
 Mr Kiwanuka responded in a March 20 advisory: “We are of the considered opinion that the human resource manual of the board governs the employment of the executive director and therefore the executive director and all the other employees [except temporary workers], would not be eligible for appointment when they are 60 and above.”

 “We, however, note that the human resource manual is a policy of the board and the board is empowered to amend it. Accordingly, in the event that the board wishes to reappoint Mr Turamye as executive director PPDA, it can only do so after amending the same.”

 Mr Turamye’s first three-year contract as executive director expired on June 9, 2022. However, following the amendment of the PPDA Act in 2021, which amplified the tenure of the executive director from three years to five, he was handed another two years in conformity with the new law.
 The executive director of PPDA is eligible for a five-year renewable contract.

 The amended PPDA Act repealed a previous provision where the board could pull the plug on the executive director, on among other grounds, abuse of office, corruption, incompetence, any physical or mental incapacity, failure to attend three consecutive board meetings without reasonable grounds, conviction on an offence involving moral turpitude, being adjudged bankrupt by a court of law, and any other reasonable ground.
 The executive director is among others; the body’s accounting officer, oversees administration and organisation, and manages funds, property and business of the body. Asked whether Mr Turamye’s performance had been satisfactory to warrant bending the company’s human resource policy, Mr Ishungisa wondered, “Why are you trying to preempt the process?”  “We will look at everything when we sit,” he noted.
 The PPDA executive director currently earns Shs15m. Sources said Mr Turamye has been instrumental in putting in place working systems mandated to act as an umpire in government-related procurement.

 Mr Turamye declined to comment on the matter when contacted.
 Prior to being appointed executive director, he served for six years as director for performance monitoring at PPDA and for another six years as manager for audits and investigations. Before that, Mr Turamye worked as an economist in the Ministry of Finance.
 He holds a Bachelor degree in Economics and a Master degree in Economic Policy Planning from Makerere University. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supplies, one of the prerequisites to become PPDA executive director.

 Mr Turamye replaced the now High Court judge Cornelia Sabiiti, who bowed out in March 2017 after her second non-renewable three-year term expired. The appointment of a substantive executive director hit a brick wall when the appointment of Dr Anania Mbabazi, the preferred candidate, was invalidated upon which Mr Turamye acted in the position for two years.