UETCL staff laid off due to funding gaps

The former staff of Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) were laid off due to budgetary constraints, management has said.

According to Joshua Karamagi, UETCL chief executive officer, management in May last year, took a decision to lay off 66 staff, whose contracts were expected to expired on June 30 this year, after failing to secure funds from Government to have their contracts renewed.

“The 66 staff, who were relieved of their duties, were being paid by the energy ministry, however, the funding had been taken away from the budget for that specific project,” he said.

Karamagi made the remarks during a meeting between UETCL board led by energy minister Sidronius Okaasai and the committee on environment and natural resources, on Wednesday.

Karamagi

The committee has been analysing a petition from disgruntled staff who are protesting what they termed as “unfair dismissal”

In their petition, the affected staff protest the decision to dismiss them and retain others, saying it is unjust, discriminatory and should be rescinded.

Karamagi contends that whereas all staff belong to UETCL, they are tagged to different projects, which can be affected by the source of funding.

He added that the affected staff were informed about the decision not to renew their contracts a month earlier as per the human resource policy.

“We have 130 staff involved in various projects. The criterion on who should leave or be retained was not on performance. All the staff passed the performance and disciplinary appraisal. If it was not for funding gaps, then everyone would have been retained,” Karamagi said.

The deputy committee chairperson, Nathan Nabeta Igime, urged the ministry and its agencies to absorb the affected staff.

“Losing a livelihood leaves everyone aggrieved because they feel they were unfairly treated. These are young people who looked sharp and dynamic. The energy ministry should consider redeploying them,” Nabeta said.

Okaasai approved of this proposal saying, ‘any petitioner who thinks he or she was laid off unfairly can compete for other jobs in the ministry and other agencies because these are professional jobs.’

Bokora County MP, John Bosco Ngoya, advised UETCL to have proper measures to ensure that such petitions do not arise in the future, by having clear and well documented terms of service