Uganda protests selective EAC recruitment

Kadaga, in her letter to Mathuki, said: “The demand for the implementation of the (EAC) treaty and strict compliance with the established regulations cannot be dismissed...."

UGANDA | EAC | KADAGA 

KAMPALA - The First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga, has protested the manner in which the ongoing recruitment exercise at the East African Community (EAC), is being conducted.

In a letter dated October 18, Kadaga accused Dr Pater Mathuki, the EAC secretary-general, of not following the EAC Council of Ministers’ rules and regulations as approved in 2006.

So far, Burundi and South Sudan are backing Uganda’s request to postpone the interviews.

Kadaga, while responding to Mathuki’s letter, demanded a written apology to the Republic of Uganda for the illegitimate response to her letter since Mathuki was not a partner state and could not usurp the powers of the member states.

Muthuki’s letter was in response to Kadaga’s letter calling for the suspension of interviews for the different jobs that were slated to take place on Monday, October 18.

Some of the jobs advertised included the clerk to the East African Legislative  Assembly (EALA) and his deputies.

Kadaga said: “It is fallacious for you to claim that you received my letter at  4:00pm. I wrote the letter at about 1:30pm and the permanent secretary contacted both you and the human resource manager immediately. The letter was from a partner state and, therefore, you had no locus standi to respond.

The letter should have been transmitted to the partner states of Burundi, Rwanda,  Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of South Sudan.  The secretary-general is an employee of the partner states and cannot take decisions on their behalf or even take a position,” Kadaga said.

Kadaga’s complaint comes in the wake of protests by Members of Parliament. 

This was after the EAC Secretariat rejected the appointment of a Ugandan national, Albert Lumumba Obatre, as a clerk and yet he had scored the highest marks and met all qualifications.

In the advert published by  EAC, one had to have served as deputy clerk. Ugandan MPs argue that Obatre, who scored the highest marks during the interview process, was not selected for the job and instead Othman Yakubu from Tanzania was appointed.

Kadaga, in her letter to Mathuki, said: “The demand for the implementation of the (EAC) treaty and strict compliance with the established regulations cannot be dismissed casually as you purport in your letter. I would like to remind you secretary-general that in compliance with Article 14(3) (g) of the Treaty, the Council issued rules and regulations in 2006, in particular regulation 4.6, which provides; At  the beginning of each recruitment exercise, the Secretariat shall inform each partner state about her balance of  weighted points.”

She further stated: “The operative word is; at the beginning. And this cannot be shifted to any other stage of the recruitment. I, therefore, reiterate my country’s position that there should be no interview conducted unless and until all the partner states have been given information about their quota.  This will eliminate the partner states  that have exhausted their quotas and  are, therefore, ineligible to participate in this exercise.”

She also reminded Mathuki that one of the reasons for the collapse of the old East African Community was disproportionate sharing of benefits of the community among the partner states.

In an interview with New Vision, Dennis Namara, one of Uganda’s EALA representatives, said all they wanted was fairness. He said the whole recruitment exercise was skewed. 

“It was clear in the advert that they wanted someone who had worked as deputy clerk and Obatre met all the qualifications but instead they were trying to favour someone without the requisite qualifications,” Namara said.

Namara accused Tanzania and Kenya of dominating the staff list in the EAC and yet some partner states like Burundi and South Sudan did not have any staff in the secretariat. 

Points and recruitment 

New Vision has learnt that a sharp disagreement between the partner states had almost crippled the secretariat’s efforts to recruit staff, with the accusation of favouritism emerging whenever recruitment was carried out.

A total of 62 vacancies were advertised in the latest recruitment.

A source at the EAC said the job points kept on fluctuating and that Uganda currently has 18 points, while  Tanzania had six points, Sudan has 36 and Kenya10 points.

Sources said the points were awarded depending on the number of staff recruited per country in the secretariat.

“If a given country has more staff in the secretariat, they are given fewer points compared to a country that does not have. In this case, South Sudan does not have any staff and that is why they have more points,” the source said.

The source said in order to get the deputy clerk position, the partner state must have at least 13 points, which Tanzania lacks at the moment.