{UAH} Ministers Vs qualifications
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Ministers Vs qualifications
Written by Sadab Kitatta Kaaya
- Created: 04 July 2016
How qualified are the men and women President Museveni has appointed to various dockets in his new cabinet? SADAB KITATTA KAAYA has been looking at the CVs of some of them.
Last month's vetting of new ministers by MPs brought to the surface details of their qualifications and competencies for the jobs. In all, 76 of the 81 ministerial appointees were vetted by the Parliamentary Appointments committee chaired by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.
At the end of three days of interviews, three appointees were rejected for lack of the requisite academic qualifications. A scrutiny by The Observer of curricula vitae (CVs) and academic documents of 30 ministers presented to the vetting committee has found that the ministers are worlds apart in terms of academic qualifications and work competences.
There are two extremes in cabinet. There's Gabriel Ajedra, with a doctorate in Civil engineering, who brings intellectual rigour to cabinet, and the likes of Adriane Tibaleka, one of three appointees rejected, who couldn't even comprehend the questions asked, let alone express herself in English.
According to her CV, she wrote her A-level exams at Kololo High School in 1981 and later got married to Marcel Tibaleka, Uganda's ambassador to Germany and the Vatican, who she has been "helping" in running the affairs of the embassy in Germany until her ministerial appointment. She did not indicate how, but her CV shows that she has been involved with various NRM working groups.
For 26 years, Tibaleka has been an importer of alcoholic products from Kenya under her companies Bob and Company as well as Tidi Import and Export Company.
Tibaleka was rejected along with Ismael Orot (Works) and Harriet Ntabazi (Industry) who, according to the MPs, presented suspect documents. Orot was rejected largely for failing to produce evidence to support his change of names.
MOST QUALIFIED
Of the 30 ministers whose CVs The Observer has scrutinized, 12 are most qualified and four of them are women with master's degrees. They include the First Lady Janet Kataaha Museveni who on June 14 had a tough time explaining to the vetting committee how she got her tertiary qualifications without ordinary and advanced level certificates.
In the past, the committee never scrutinized her academic documents because when she was appointed as minister for Karamoja Affairs, she only presented her CV without academic documents.
The other women with good academic qualifications are Irene Muloni (Energy and Mineral Development), Mary Karooro Okurut (General Duties, OPM) and Grace Freedom Kwiyucwiny (state for Northern Uganda).
Muloni holds an MBA and a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and boasts of a more-than-25-year working experience in the energy sector. Okurut has a master's and a bachelor's degree in English Literature in addition to a diploma in Education from Makerere University.
Kwiyucwiny is a social scientist from Makerere University and holds an MBA from the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI) and a post-graduate diploma in Management from Uganda Management Institute (UMI). While some ministers presented one-page CVs, Muloni carried a 15-page CV.
Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi (Youth and Children Affairs) took time designing her CV, with a portrait of an elegantly-dressed Muganda woman on its cover. She lists Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, Buganda Prince David Kintu Wasajja and Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen Katumba Wamala as her referees.
Hajji Abdul Nadduli, the new minister without Portfolio, listed President Museveni, Gen Salim Saleh and Mufti Sheikh Shaban Ramathan Mubajje as his referees.
His CV presents evidence of his long education journey from Kabasanda Junior School, where he got a Junior school certificate in 1961 to Makerere University's Institute of Adult and Continuing Education where he attended an intermediate course in 1973 which was equated to an O-level certificate.
Here he studied two subjects; government, scoring 48 marks, and East African History, 59 marks. Around the same time, Nadduli taught at Kalasa Senior Secondary School in Luweero (1972-1981) and doubled as a deputy head teacher at Kalasa primary school (1976-81).
In 1978, he enrolled at Lugogo Centre for the East African Certificate of Education (EACE) for what he calls an A-level equivalent. He wrote exams for six subjects; English language, Christian Religious Education (CRE), History, Geography, Luganda and Health Sciences and scored aggregate 49.
His best score was in History and Luganda, with a pass seven (7) apiece. On January 8, 1998, the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB) gave Nadduli a letter equating his grades to both O and A-level certificates.
The same documents in addition to a degree in Social Work and Social Administration (SWSA) from Bugema University were certified by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) on January 13, 2006.
POLITICAL INTERESTS
A further scrutiny of the ministers' CVs also shows that most of them were placed in dockets where they have no technical competence. According to Hippo Twebaze, a political scientist and policy analyst, the placements were influenced by the desire to save the NRM as opposed to service delivery.
"The president always has many considerations and the biggest consideration this time was rebuilding the shrinking base of the [NRM] by bringing to his side elements of the moderate opposition," Twebaze said on Saturday.
"Considering the choices he made, service delivery is the casualty; most selections were not based on competence to deliver but political interests," Twebaze added.
While debating a motion to increase the number of ministers, MPs raised similar concerns. They urged President Museveni to think about appointing people with technical competencies for improved service delivery.
FDC President Mugisha Muntu said in a separate interview that the president was not interested in service delivery.
"Museveni has consistently been doing that; the whole purpose is not about having an effective and efficient cabinet, but one that satisfies his politics," Muntu said on June 18.
Dr Chris Baryomunsi, who was moved from Health to the Housing ministry, told us that much as he has no problem with his new job, he would be better off supervising things he understands. Justice Forum (Jeema) president Asuman Basalirwa cites what he calls a lack of ideological compass by the appointing authority.
"The cabinet [has become] pressure-driven, a propaganda tool and a PR [public relations] stunt; occupying cabinet has become a career due to lack of ideological compass by Museveni and NRM," Basalirwa told us.
Speaking at their swearing-in ceremony at State House Entebbe on June 21, President Museveni dropped hints on the rationale behind some of his ministerial picks. For instance, he said, he appointed Dennis Ssozi Galabuzi as minister of state for Luweero Triangle because his father used to supply sugar and coffee to him (Museveni) during the war that brought NRM to power 30 years ago.
Senior presidential press secretary Don Wanyama argued that since ministerial appointments are political, it is not a requirement to have ministers with specific qualifications.
"Their [ministers] role is political supervision, the people that run government are the technocrats who, by law, are required to have certain qualifications for them to be deployed in a given department," Wanyama said.
Nonetheless, Wanyama said, some ministries such as Energy, Education, Works and Health got political heads with technical qualifications.
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