Ugandan disgruntled journalist Arnold Mukose has dragged Bank of Uganda and the Attorney General to court over the fishy appointment and confirmation of Dr. Tumubweine Twinemanzi as the Executive Director in charge of supervision at the Central Bank.
In February 2018, Twinemazi was appointed by Governor Emmanuel Mutebile to replace troubled Justine Bagyenda as the director in charge of supervision at the Central bank of Uganda.
However, the Presidential Tripartite Committee, in February 2019 found out that Mutebile unethically recruited new staff in a massive staff restructuring process that took place on February 7, 2018. The 10 member Committee led by Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu that was instituted by President Yoweri Museveni discovered that Mutebile flouted procedures in the recruitment of top directors and managers.
Worse of all, the committee in its probe observed that whereas Dr. Tumubweine claims to have obtained a first class degree, he got a pass degree which is below the required minimum qualification for the position of Executive Director in charge of Bank Supervision.
In a new twist, according to a suit filed before the civil division of the High Court in Kampala, Arnold Anthony Mukose alleges that the appointment and confirmation of Twinemanzi didn’t follow the right procedure as required by law.
“Before the recruitment of the third respondent (Twinemanzi), there was no advertisement for the job in at least two local newspapers and one weekly newspaper, the Bank of Uganda website or other media of communication. There was no internal or external advertisement for the job,” Mukose avers in a suit where the Attorney General, Bank of Uganda and Twinemanzi himself are listed as respondents.
According to Anthony, there was no determination by the heads of the department that there was need for recruitment of an Executive Director in charge of supervision at the Central bank through headhunting.
Mukose avers that there was as well no request by the Executive Director, Administration to the Governor to recruit an Executive Director in charge of supervision through headhunting.
“The third respondent has a pass degree of Bachelor of Science in Statistics and Applied Economics from Makerere University, 1996 and is not qualified to be recruited to work in Bank of Uganda. He has never worked in any commercial bank and therefore has no work experience relevant to commercial banking and is accordingly incapable of effectively working as Executive Director, supervision.”
The petitioner says that the illegal staff recruitment of Twinemanzi was reported to the Inspectorate of Government and that attempts to answer the complaints by the Governor Bank of Uganda were unsatisfactory.
“The Inspectorate of Government accordingly directed the Board of Directors of Bank of Uganda not to ratify any actions or decisions taken by the Governor in relation to the impugned appointments and transfers until such a time as the investigations by the inspectorate have been conducted or this office directs otherwise,” Mukose says.
The journalist wants court to declare that the actions and decisions of the Governor of the Bank of Uganda culminating into the sourcing, appointment and confirmation of Twinemanzi Tumubweine was done illegally and therefore cannot stand.
“The court should declare that the continued employment of Twinemanzi Tumubweine as Executive Director , supervision for Bank of Uganda in spite the intervention of the office of the Inspectorate General of Government and in spite of the report of the Presidential Tripartite Committee is illegal and continues to be tainted with irrationality, procedural impropriety and unfairness.”
The journalist wants the Court to issue an injunction restraining BOU from implementing or otherwise using the impugned advice of the attorney general.