Uncertainty as M7 Allows Three Key Ministries to go Months Without PSs

For months now, three very important GoU Ministries have gone without Permanent Secretaries who, ordinarily, are supposed to also serve as Accounting Officers and essentially the Chief Executive Officers at the respective Ministries.

These are the Ministry of Lands, Works/Transport and also the Judiciary where Dr. Pius Bigirimana eased out months ago following expiry of his three-year contract. At Lands, 68-year-old Dorcas Okalany had her contract ran out, without the President being in a hurry to renew it, which led to her easing out of the office. She was directed/aided to hand the role over to Under Secretary Dr. Fredrick Mugunga who has been steering the ship, efficiently doing the role of accounting officer.

At Works, old man Waiswa Baligeya was asked to step aside after the new Minister Fred Byamukama unearthed corruption dealings which the appointing authority was disturbed as to why the PS wasn’t detecting and stopping them on good time. The Under Secretary is the one now serving as the Accounting Officer and the same goes for the Judiciary in the absence of the legendary Pius Bigirimana.

Ordinarily, a PS writes to the Head of Public Service Lucy Nakyobe three months before expiry of his or her contract. In that communication, the PS notifies the Head Service about the impending expiry and expresses interest in retention. The Head Service will communicate the same to the Public Service Commission (PSC).

The PSC will arrange a session to interface with the affected PSs and during that interface, the Permanent Secretary will highlight his or her accomplishments and generally justify why his desire for contract renewal is well merited. He will also indicate what he intends to do in the subsequent three years should the new contract be granted.

The Commission will assess everything and then write to the appointing authority, who is the President, recommending the contract renewal in case they are satisfied. The appointing authority will then exercise discretion and have the last word. In the case of Bigirimana, the appointing authority’s hands were partly tied because of the fact that between July and a few days ago, Uganda didn’t have a functional PSC.

The old Commission’s contract had expired and the renewal was only effected recently when the President chose former URA manager Vincent Seruma, the humble man from Kisoro, to head the new Commission. Most likely, processing the Bigirimana and Okalany reappointment will be part of the priority business for the new Commission. But there are also reports that it won’t be long before a reshuffle is occasioned among the PSs.

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