Top managers quit UBC jobs
KAMPALA.
Four top managers at the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC), have resigned, citing interference of members of the Board of Directors in their duties and failure by the State Broadcaster to pay salaries on time.
Sources within the State Broadcaster told Daily Monitor on Tuesday that both the corporation secretary, Mr Ronald Kayizzi and the Head of Finance, Mr Grace Isabirye, threw in the towel in October, accusing members of the board, especially its chairman, Mr Simon Kaheru, of overstepping their mandate.
Mr Kaheru and his Board are accused of having taken on administrative functions and hanging around UBC premises all the time, something that has brought them into conflict with the managers. Mr Kaheru, however, denies the accusations.
“As acting chairperson and board member, I play an oversight role, together with the other board members, for the good of the corporation. We perform administrative functions at UBC as board members and in the difficult circumstances that UBC finds itself in, this work is much more pronounced and visible,” he told Daily Monitor.
Mr Isabirye is said to have quit the Corporation’s Finance desk following an altercation with Mr Kaheru over the formers’ academic qualifications.
The two are said to have faced off in August shortly after the Corporation’s Board and Management appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on State Agencies and Enterprises to respond to audit queries raised in several reports of the Auditor General.
During the interface, sources revealed, some MPs questioned the professionalism of some officials including Mr Isabirye, remarks which Mr Kaheru is said to have repeated while at UBC, prompting him to tender his resignation.
“He told some of his colleagues that he found the situation untenable and opted to resign,” the source revealed.
Mr Kaheru, however, denies having forced Mr Isabirye’s hand.
“That (resignation) is a personal matter and employees have rights that they can exercise at any given time according to their contracts with the organisation they work for. If that is their reason for leaving then it does not form a discussion point I can go into,” he said.
Accusation
The managers accuse Mr Kaheru and his Board of taking on administrative functions and hanging around UBC premises all the time, something that has brought them into conflict with the managers.
