MPs question KCCA boss Kitaaka over unqualified physical planners 

Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Committee of Commissions Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) have questioned Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) boss Andrew Kitaaka over unqualified physical planners in the city.

The KCCA officials had appeared before the committee over the continued collapse of buildings and walls around the city. However, during the interaction, MPs discovered that Moses Atwiine, the director in charge of planning didn’t meet the requirements to hold the office.

When put to task, both Atwiine and the director in charge of Human resource could not convincingly explain how they got appointed. This forced the Cosase chairperson Mubarak Munyagwa to task Atwine to produce his papers.
“We shall not entertain speculations. Can you present your qualifications before the committee?” Munyagwa asked.

He also blamed KCCA boss for employing unqualified people in the authority.
In response, Kitaaka said his committee was planning to correct all messed up structures within the authority but were stopped by Central government leadership.

This prompted Paul Mwiru, MP Jinja East to seek an explanation.
“We want evidence which shows that the government stooped you from correcting this mess. Was the announcement made on radio? If yes, we shall need that copy,” Mwiru said.

Kitaaka said the halting was made via radio announcement and in a written document which he promised to present before the committee in the next sitting.

According to Mwiru, out of the 1,423 posts available, only 1,234 were filled, which represents 13 per cent of understaffing.
“It was also noted that the authority appointed 724 including the managers to perform duties in various departments on a temporary basis which affected their capacity and competence of members to performance, What is your take? Why did you decide to do this,” Mwiru asked Kitaaka.

However, Kitaaka passed the question to Director administration Human Resource Richard Lule who said that the government catered only for 30 per cent staff members which led them to employ a few people compared to the required number.

“The first segment was approved on March 12 with 1,332 staff to be employed, this meant that we needed Shs79billion to cater for their salaries however the central government gave us only Shs24billion which is 30 per cent of what we required, we, therefore, had to do that,” Lule explained.

The engagement is expected to continue on Wednesday where Atwine has presented his academic qualification. Also, Kitaaka is expected to come with the latter form central government that halted him from cleaning the authority.