Bamuturaki’s approval as Uganda Airline CEO caused Shs98m loss

By Francis Lubega

16^th Aug 2022

Members of Parliament under the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises –COSASE have found out that the presidential order for the appointment of the Uganda Airline’s Chief Executive Officer caused Shs98m loss to the airline.

This was after the auditor general’s report faulted Uganda Airlines Board for illegally confirming Jenifer Bamuturaki as CEO without following the proper recruitment process but rather work on the orders of President Yoweri Museveni.

This has been during the meeting between the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises –COSASE and the Airline management were the acting chairperson board of directors Uganda Airlines Herbert Kamuntu confessed to have acted upon an instruction from the Minister of Works and Transport, General Edward Katumba Wamala under the directive of Museveni.

Kamuntu said that at the time of the directive, the board had already hired a private company at the tune of Shs98m to conduct the recruitment process of the CEO and they are now in negotiations to reduce the cost.

It’s from this that the Committee chairperson who is also the Nakawa West Member of Parliament, Ssenyonyi asked the CEO to submit her qualifications to the committee by Wednesday this week as they return to answer to the audit queries.

Ssenyonyi has also directed the management of Uganda Airlines within a month to have a proper staff structure well by the board to avoid salary discrepancies.

This arose after the auditor general’s report of 2020-2021 revealed how the staff of Uganda Airlines were earning abnormal salaries in-spite of the losses incurred by the Airline.

According to the report the Chief Executive Officer-CEO earns Shs87m, a pilot earns Shs80m, managers range from Sh50m-Sh30m each while a cabin crew earns between Shs30- Shs15m among others yet the Airline was incurring a loss of Shs164bn annually.