Uganda Airlines CEO Jenifer Bamuturaki did not meet the minimum academic requirements at the time of her appointment, according to COSASE.
The Committee on Commissions Statutory Authorities (COSASE) on Wednesday learnt that Uganda Airlines CEO Jenifer Bamuturaki didn’t meet the minimum academic requirements at the time of appointment.
According to the Nakawa West Member of Parliament, Joel Ssenyonyi who is also the COSASE chairman, Bamuturaki only holds a bachelor’s degree with no post studies attached to it.
“She only had a B.A SWASA and lacked post graduate training (an extra requirement). Ms Bamuturaki is currently pursuing a post graduate-diploma in Public Administration at Makerere University,” Ssenyonyi said.
“Her highest qualification as of now is a Bachelor’s in Social Works and Social Administration; how comes she was given the job. 40 others who applied perhaps had better qualifications and yet the people she is supervising have masters,” he added.
Bamuturaki was appearing before the Committee on Wednesday, 17 August 2022. Accompanied by several officials from the Airline to respond to loopholes identified in the Auditor General’s report for the year 2021.
Bamuturaki was challenged to table her curriculum vitae to ascertain that she met the minimum standards before being appointed as CEO of Uganda Airlines however, in her response she said despite being short of papers, she holds a pool of experience for the job.
“It does not matter whether I went to the moon or whether I did MDD, what matters is do I have the skill? And I do. I can’t blame myself for being appointed,” Bamuturaki responded.
“The certificates I have from IATA; if you put them together, they will come to a diploma but I have a degree. It doesn’t matter what I did at degree level, but I have the skill and certification from IATA,” she added.
Uganda Airlines came to the stage officially in 2019 to start operating commercial flights but since then, the company has been under the management of three acting CEOs including Ephraim Bagenda, Cornwell Muleya and Bamuturaki.
Bamuturaki was fired at the end of her six-month probation back in March 2020 over a number of notable allegations including hiring a media and PR firm, Abbavator Ltd where she had direct interests, to manage the PR and communications for the airline and subsequently over-invoicing the airline by over $232,000.
According to an article by The Observer newspaper at that time, she was also accused as then second in command of approving payments of over $404,000 yet the actual cost was $172,000.
She was also accused of failing to eventually comply with contractual obligations by not paying several media houses and eventually engaging in negative publicity against Uganda Airlines, whose image it was meant to protect.
Bamuturaki was also accused of using her position to establish external air stations on routes of Nairobi, Mombasa, Mogadishu, Mombasa, Dr es Salaam and Kilimanjaro.
She somehow skirted around the allegations and bounced back at the airline in May 2021 as acting CEO, replacing Muleya who is currently battling charges related to disobedience of lawful orders when he refused to avail himself to answer questions from the IGG in relation to investigations into the mismanagement of the national carrier during the period when he was the CEO of the airline.
With all this, several disparities are being witnessed in the management of the Airlines including exorbitant salaries disbursed to its top officials.
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