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KAMPALA, UGANDA: The Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (UETCL) is a subject of an investigation by the Inspectorate of Government (IG) over a mouthwatering Shs1 billion deal splashed on hiring 37 new staff at the government-owned power transmitter.
The IG earlier this week said they had launched an investigation to ascertain the circumstances under which the agency which is funded by the taxpayers’ money injected more than a billion on a questionable recruitment deal.
Ms Patricia Achan Okiria, the deputy IGG confirmed to this publication that an investigation has been sanctioned, but declined to give details, saying it would jeopardise the exercise.
“We have kicked off an investigation on that and I don’t want to talk about it, I would love to talk to you about the matter once the information is ripe,” Ms Okiria said yesterday evening.
“The motive of spending that huge amount of money to hire a few people is questionable, even if that company has a fully-fledged human resources department that we are informed is capable of handling the assignment,” she added.
Background of the story
The story which was uncovered on Monday by DailyMonitor exposed how UETCL had gone ahead to spend a hefty sum of money on recruitment indicating that Klynveld Peat Marwick Geordeler (KPMG), a multinational human resource consultant which won the contract for hiring the new staff cost the government agency Shs27m per person.
The contract, which was signed on June 15, 2023, by then UETCL’s acting company secretary Martin Erone, and Ms Judith Erone, the authorised representative of KPMG indicated that UETCL would pay the consultant Shs1,046,495,000, inclusive of VAT 18 per cent.
The Newspaper further quoted sources briefed on the matter describing that the ‘dubious’ expenditure contained in internal memos as unnecessary, and argued that UETCL’s human resources department should have conducted the exercise for free or minimal cost.
A further breakdown of the contract’s total cost showed how one KPMG official would pocket Shs6.66m per day for 33.6 days, translating to Shs210.5m at the end of the 12 weeks contract period.
Source:Daily Express Uganda