Left to Right: Public Service Commission chairperson Justice Ralph Ochan, Tourism minister Ephraim Kamuntu and incumbent UWA boss Andrew Seguya
To ensure transparency in the recruitment of the next executive director of the Uganda Wild Life Authority (UWA), the Ministry of Tourism has rejected the private consultancy firms that had been hired to conduct interviews.
According to sources, board of trustees of UWA which had hired the firms, held discussions with the ministry and it was decided that the Public Service Commission takes over the process because of its track record.
Last week, eight candidates sat both oral and written interviews. The same sources, who preferred not to be mention because they don’t speak for the commission told PML Daily that a total of 22 applicants had shown interests but only eight were picked.
The eight are Dr Andrew Seguya, the incumbent, whose contract expired in November last year, Dr. Gladys Kalema, a board member, Dr. Samson Werikhe of Gorilla Organisation, Dr Samuel Mugasi, the Executive director, NAADS, Achilles Byaruhanga, a lecturer at the Department of Environment, Makerere University, Dr Daniel Alapa and Sam Mawanda.
See related: https://www.pmldaily.com/news/2018/02/eight-fight-to-kick-seguya-out-of-uwa-office.html
“We expect the results to come out before the end of this month. But all the candidates have rich CVs and its really going to hard task for the commission to select the best,” one of the sources told PML Daily.
Whistle blower complains
Although the Public Service Commission was hired to do the job, one whistle blower complained that it was single sourced.
Also, the whistle blower is questioning the Shs21.8m which UWA paid to the Public Service Commission to recruit a new executive director.
But Justice Ralph Ochan, the chairperson of the commission explained that they handled the recruitment process well, describing it a costly exercise. “It involved hiring a hall, with ICT facilities and a consultant,” he added.
