Uganda Airlines current aircraft
Government plans to purchase eight new aircraft to boost the fleet for Uganda Airlines.
The revelation was made by Medard Sseggona, Chairperson of Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) and the development comes at the time Parliament is probing allegations that the bombardier aircraft earlier bought in 2019 may soon be grounded due to unavailability of spare parts.
“My view is if we could get some of the people, we consider knowledgeable in this industry and have a discussion with them because the national airline is at stake. If we invited stakeholders, we consider knowledgeable, maybe not experts but knowledgeable in this area, you could advise. Remember that the government is about to purchase, is it another eight aircrafts? Eight. But yet there could be cheaper options like leasing,” said Sseggona.
Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has summoned Jenifer Bamuturaki, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Uganda Airlines, after failing to show up, without any explanation given for the meeting that was scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning to respond to a number of accountability queries.
Sseggona issued the summons and expressed displeasure at the failure by Bamuturaki to alert the Committee of her failure to show up, saying this amounts to wastage of taxpayers’ money as Parliament and MPs spend money on transport.
“Tomorrow we are supposed to have Uganda Revenue Authority. While I was here, I received a call from the OCG that has been summoned to the Prime Minister’s office over the strike. You know there’s a section of traders that have gone on strike today. Can’t we substitute and recall this particular agency tomorrow without fail? Let her come here with the former accounting officer and the task force as we advised last time and please inform her that failure to turn up, the committee will invoke stronger measures,” said Sseggona.
When asked by journalists on whether the current COSASE report on Uganda Airlines won’t meet the similar fate like was the one chaired by Joel Ssenyonyi (Nakawa West) where the top leadership of Parliament blocked presentation of the report from Parliament and whether Bamuturaki isn’t being disrespectful by not showing up for Committee meetings, Sseggona assured the media that unlike Ssenyonyi, his report on Uganda Airlines will be presented before Parliament.
“This is their first time to refuse to or to fail to appear before me, they have appeared before. I mean last week, they were here. They will come. I cannot speak for the previous leadership. I was not in a position to know why. This time they will come and we shall have a report. The country will have a report,” noted Sseggona.
The summons followed concerns raised by Nathan Itungo (Kashari South), who wondered if the Committee would be able to take a well informed decision on the future of Uganda Airlines after reports emerged that some of the aircraft bought at the revival of Uganda Airlines are about to be grounded because they run out of spare parts.
Itungo remarked, “But you see chair, the fundamental issue why we wanted this agency back was about the former accounting officer who made a deal that is going to cause a fundamental loss because you know the spares of the planes that were purchased. The manufacturer is out of business and the future of the planes is in question. So, I don’t know the documents we have. If we are to use them, shall we be able to take a decision on the former accounting officer on the purchase of the plane that has run out of the spare parts?”
Sseggona defended the need for the Committee to give Bamuturaki and her team another second chance to appear before the Committee noting that the meeting comes at the time Government is planning to purchase eight new aircrafts to boost Uganda Airlines fleet, and before that purchase is made, it is important to ensure that the aircrafts that will be bought don’t suffer similar fate like the one that befell the bombardier aircrafts.
His proposal was backed by Allan Mayanja (Nakaseke Central) who also indicated that apart from the query on unavailability of spare parts for the current aircraft, the Committee is also probing several accountability queries raised by the Auditor General.
He stated, “This entity has to appear before the committee because when you look at the issue of treasury memorandum, they only implemented 12 recommendations out of 18. They also have other issues to answer apart from spare parts. And then when you look at the report on performance evaluation, there are so many issues to be answered. So, they have to appear before the committee, whether by force or by any means, because there are so many issues to answer.”
However, Shakila Rahim Lamar, Head of Corporate Affairs & Public Relations- Uganda Airlines denied allegations that officials from the national Airline deliberately snubbed the Committee meeting, attributing the fiasco to the mix-up in times between the institution and the Committee, stating that in the last sitting, the Committee had indicated the meeting would be held at 12:00Pm, which explains why the team arrived at 11:30am.
“Actually, there was a mix-up in time. As you are aware, I don’t know whether some of you were here last Thursday, the chair had indicated midday. So, with that also we had the CEO and other team members had scheduled a meeting, a crucial meeting for the airline at 10:00am. So, in hindsight we really knew all of us were supposed to be here at midday and as you’re aware also even the auditor general’s representative came in at almost midday. So, it was a mix-up on time. This is regrettable, but also we apologise that we had that mix-up because we also want to have this hearing done and have some of these issues resolved and so that we can get back to the operation,” Shakila said.
She promised that Uganda Airline top management will be available for tomorrow’s meeting adding, “I have heard from the clerk he said that we’re supposed to appear at 9am and we will be here on time. You know we are aviators … We were here 11:30Am.”
