By JONATHAN KAMOGA

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Days after Uganda Airlines hired a chief executive away from a process it had contracted professional recruitment services agency PwC to carry out, the carrier finds itself in the spotlight with revelations that it will not only have to pay the latter the full Ush95 million ($25,000) fee as per the contract but also that its CEO is deemed not qualified for the job.

Jennifer Bamuturaki, then acting CEO, was hired after President Yoweri Museveni directed the Ministry of Works, under which the state-owned airline falls, to do so.

This week, she and other airline chiefs appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises to shed light on the carrier.

Whereas Ms Bamuturaki has most of the other qualifications contained in the advertisement for the CEO post, it was noted that she did not have a post-graduate training in administration or any other business-related course.

MPs queried the criteria for appointing her, as well as operational costs including pay for top executives. They wanted to know why the board had not followed the laid out procedures for recruitment.

Ms Bamuturaki told MPs that she did not apply for the job.

“I am qualified to run Uganda Airlines,” she told MPs on Wednesday, adding that she had worked with other airlines before.

Now, a board member of the airline says Uganda Airlines will still settle a professional fee to PwC, which was still perusing through applications for the position. As part of the deal, PwC was to help recruit the CEO and other top company executives.

Intact contract

The board member said the firm will be paid the fee because the contract to recruit other officials is still intact.

Ms Bamuturaki, who had worked as the airlines’ commercial director and later acting CEO following the firing of Cornwell Muleya, was appointed the substantive CEO last month.

It was revealed that the salaries paid monthly managers ranged from Ush14 million ($3,686) for manager for cargo handling to Ush87 million for the CEO.

Pilots and cabin crew earned between Ush50 million and Ush60 million ($13,164-$15,797) and Ush2 million to Ush4 million ($526-$1,000), respectively.

Whereas the rates maybe within or even lower than the global market price, a recent report by the country’s auditor general John Muwanga said the national carrier lost $26.8 million in the 2019/2020 financial year, and $42.6 million in the 2020/2021 financial year.

According to a new strategic plan, the airline will embark on increasing regional, international and domestic flights onto its network.

Currently the airline flies regional routes like Nairobi, Mombasa, Juba, Mogadishu, Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Kinshasa, and internationally to Dubai.

The new plan seeks to add more routes like London, Guangzhou, Mumbai, West Africa and Khartoum, and increasing frequency of flights to Nairobi and Kinshasa.

The airline whose fleet is made up of four bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft put on short haul flights, and two Airbus a330-800 neo for long-haul flights, does not have aircraft specifically for its cargo.

Officials say that there are plans to have medium sized cargo aircraft.