And who will be the next BOU governor (II)
What you need to know:
- The President may look at policy in an area where BoU has delivered macroeconomic stability. But that may ignore a need for a reform centered candidate to shake up administration, shake up regulation.
So in replacing the governor of the Central Bank, one has to understand why some of the functions of both the governor and the deputy governor have been confused. First the governor is in charge of the core functions of the bank, policy, regulation and some aspects of operations. This is the guy who addresses the press on meetings of the Monetary Policy Committee. The deputy governor is in charge of people, plant and equipment. He is the landlord. He supervises audit, human resource, security and all those non-glamorous items per se. Until the reign of Louis Kasekende, the longest serving Deputy Governor, no one really cared. But in his appointment the President I think was grooming a successor but also appointing a young smart economist only aged 40 at his first appointment.
He had been acting Deputy Governor and acting Governor when Charles Nyonyintono Kikonyogo died in 2001. Kikonyogo was replaced by Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, a career civil servant, and government accounting officer. ETM had also been an Under-Secretary and prior a Deputy PPS to the President. In short ETM was hardly a fly on the wall and was a robust public administrator. No one could deny him a hand in bureaucratic politics that runs this place. One time, the Governor wrote a memo stating no key appointments could happen without him in office.
So President Museveni is staring at so many competencies. First is politics that has diluted the academic pedigree of the bank. With so many smart people, the legal department functioned with just about two lawyers for so many years. Everybody was so smart Bank of Uganda was rarely involved in lawsuits of any magnitude, until the standards lowered. Once they did, pettiness, tribalism and yes, religious extremism, took centre stage.
The President may look at policy in an area where BoU has delivered macroeconomic stability. But that may ignore a need for a reform centered candidate to shake up administration, shake up regulation.
If he is looking for core skills, the President can choose from Currency, Banks Supervision and Research. Support departments have rarely been in the play for these positions; Human Resource, Internal Audit, Bank Secretary, Legal, Administration, Finance.
Bank of Uganda also has a number of “katebe positions” persons serving their final years as directors in two-man or three man departments. If you disagree with higher ups you are posted to one of these. Mr. Benedict Sekabira, who was victimised for positions he took in managing and disposing of the Greenland Bank portfolio and who for years was heir apparent to Justin Bagyenda who was “retired” out of her job after the Cosase hearings is serving in such a position. If you are in the favour of the Governor, you may retire as an Advisor to the Governor.
Dr Atingi Ego comes from Research, the economists, but he is in an operations position. The President may look at outsiders [this has not been the favoured approach]. As he grows older, he favours comrades or their children or relatives. Attention busting announcements like Maria Kiwanuka are unlikely, the first Minister of Finance whom the PS worried couldn’t ride in the official ministerial 4 wheel drive limousine because she drove a posher car. Yet this gender aspect may soften some of the policies. The majority of households in Uganda are headed by women. The other female candidates suffer from a lack of profile or lack of familiarity with the institution’s hierarchical and tribal cocoons and would be overrun by the vested interests inside the Bank. Picking any one of the cardinals, the Executive Directors over the Deputy may also be calamitous.
For some-time until his exit as PS/ST Keith Muhakanizi was seen as a natural successor in the Mutebile mould. A product of the bureaucracy. Even after being posted out of the Treasury to the Office of the Prime Minister, he is still holding onto his seat on the Board.
After a long medical leave and rumors he would resign as PS OPM, Keith quietly reported to work. He forgave some unlucky officers who had been swept up in bogus Covid fraud charges. Maybe the President misses his candour. He had a way of telling the President there is no money and the President would listen. Maria Kiwanuka also had a way of saying the same in her English which lacked the accent but also could annoy the big man. These two candidates are clear front-runners
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate.
