Despite scoring highly, the search committee, declined to recommend Professor Moses Joloba for appointment on grounds that there were several complaints against him. However, the committee noted that there was no conclusive report on the status of the complaints as well as disciplinary action by either management or Appointments Board.
Professor Moses Joloba presenting on January 20, 2020 at Davis Lecture Theatre in Mulago College of Health Sciences
There is a leadership vacuum at the College of
Health Sciences in Makerere University following the decision by the university
council not to approve Professor Damalie Nakanjako as the College Principal.
It came after 33 staff from the college
petitioned the council challenging criteria used by the search committee to
recommend Professor Damalie Nakanjako for appointment as college head.
Professor Damalie Nakanjako scored 76.2% against 77.3% scored by her rival, Professor
Moses Joloba.
A Principal is a senior management position in
the University structure and is an academic and administrative head of the
College answerable to the Vice Chancellor.
The principal is responsible for promoting and maintaining academic
excellence, management efficiency and good order of the College. Once appointed
to the office, one holds it for a term of four years under salary scale M3
(with a monthly take home salary of Shs.9.1Million).
Despite scoring highly, the search committee,
declined to recommend Professor Moses Joloba for appointment on grounds that
there were several complaints against him. However, the committee noted that
there was no conclusive report on the status of the complaints as well as
disciplinary action by either management or Appointments Board.
The
committee decision enraged staff in the College
of Health Sciences arguing that Professor Moses Joloba was irregularly
disqualified on the basis of an irregular senate vote since he was investigated
by the Inspectorate of Government-IG.
This according to College staff is; “something
that the search committee misinterpreted to mean lack of integrity, yet the
same yard stick was not applied to the recommended candidate for the same post
at CoBAMS (College of Business and Management Sciences), even when the said
candidate was never convicted of any wrong doing and has never been brought
before any disciplinary committee of Makerere University nor to a competent
court of law,’ reads part of the petition.
They further argue that the search committee
disregarded the law on presumption of innocence until proven guilty. “We find
this to be very disheartening and demoralizing, given this candidate’s
significant contribution to administrative, academic, research and capacity
building initiatives at the CHS,” the staff argue in their petition. In the on-going Court Case challenging the appointment of
Professor William Bazeyo as the substantive Deputy Vice Chancellor, High Court pronounced
itself in the matter of the Senate’s irrational and emotional decisions that
are not based on the law.
URN set out to find out the complaints that cost Professor
Joloba the job. On February 7, 2020, Andrew Abunyang, the Director Human
Resources released a report detailing information on disciplinary records of
the candidates that had been shortlisted for the jobs of Principal and Deputy
Principal. The report followed a review of the employment files of each
candidate. According to information on File number 0231/10/088, Professor Moses
Joloba was investigated by the IG for alleged abuse of office and financial
impropriety.
In one of the complaints lodged on September 28, 2011
addressed to the Vice Chancellor, the IG sought to access personal files of
three University employees, one of whom was Professor Joloba (then an Associate
Professor). Records show that, the then Acting Vice Chancellor, Professor,
Venansius Baryamureeba granted access to the files on October 28, 2011.
Although the letter from the IG didn’t specify
the subject of the investigations, URN has since established that the IG released
a report on February 8, 2019. A copy was submitted to the Vice Chancellor,
Professor Barnabas Nawangwe and copied to the Education and Sports Minister,
the University Council Chairperson,, Lorna Magara and Professor Charles
Ibingira, the Principal CHS.
The IG recommended that Professor Joloba resigns
from either the position of lecturer at Makerere University or Director Supra
National Reference Laboratory, which is the second supranational tuberculosis
reference lab in Africa, the first being in South Africa. URN accessed a copy of the IGG’s report
indicating that the Professor of Molecular Biology, Immunology and Microbiology
was drawing two salaries from two government entities, making him a candidate
for abuse of office and financial impropriety.
How it Came About
Professor Joloba was first appointed Lecturer at
Makerere University in 1997 in now the Department of Medical Microbiology,
School of Biomedical sciences. In 2004, he was appointed to head the
National Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory (NTRL). However, the letter didn’t the salary he would
earn. On April 13, 2017, Professor Joloba was offered
an appointment on contract as director Supra National TB Reference Laboratory
(SRL) for a period of 24 months, effective November 1, 2015. The contract was
renewable, subject to performance and availability of funds.
The appointment was issued by the Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Health entitling Professor Joloba to a monthly gross pay of
Shillings 11.7Million and 10% of gross salary remittance to NSSF as employer’s
contribution. On October 10, 2017, Professor Joloba’s contract was
renewed for another 24 months effective November 1, 2017 under the same terms. During investigations by the IG, remuneration
payment vouchers for Supra National TB Reference Laboratory confirmed that the
staffer earned a monthly salary, contrary to provisions of Section 14 of the
Uganda Public Service Standing Orders, 2010.
However, on March 14th, 2019, the Vice
Chancellor, Professor Barnabas Nawangwe wrote to the Health Ministry Permanent
Secretary, Diana Atwine exonerating Professor Joloba. He dismissed the findings
of the IG indicating that Professor Joloba was holding two positions in two Government
institutions and therefore drawing two salaries. However,
Justice Irene Mulyagonja Kakooza, the former IGG
insisted that it wasn’t right to substitute the word “salary” for “allowance”
in Professor Moses Joloba’s appointment letter and remuneration vouchers.
“The facts prove to us that Professor Moses Joloba earns a
salary from Makerere University and at the same time from SRL, a project funded
by ECSA HC under the Ministry of Health. If Professor Joloba’s contract as
Director SRL entitles him to only allowances, then Ministry of Health should
have stated so. But as it is now, his appointment letter states that he earns a
salary,” says Justice Mulyagonja, in her April 25, 2019 letter to Makerere Vice
Chancellor.
URN has since learnt that Professor Joloba’s salary as
Director SRL is drawn from the East, Central and Southern Africa Health
Community (ECSA HC) Sub-grant of 2015 Global Fund. On August 30, 2016, ECSA HC entered an o
agreement with Uganda, represented by Ministry of Health and committed to
provide US$3.7M (approximately Shillings 13.7B) for supporting the Uganda SRL
and other countries to improve TB diagnosis in the ECSA region.
After a series of correspondences, it was
clarified that Professor Joloba was engaged on part-time basis (45% level of
effort) to spearhead the SRL project, because of his skills, expertise and the
critical role he played in winning the Global Fund Grant, which earned him an
allowance and not a salary.
Another related complaint against Professor Joloba was
irregular transfer of the BACTEC MGIT 960 instrument, a fully automated,
non-radiometric instrument, designed for rapid detection growth of mycobacteria
to the School of Biomedical Sciences in Mulago. The machine had been procured for the
Tuberculosis Lab. However, the IGG was told, while as a Director, Professor
Joloba transferred the machine, for lack of space at the labs in Wandegeya.
The complaint was cleared after clarification. The IGG
also shows that Professor Joloba together with Dr. David Patrick Kateete, both
employees of Makerere University incorporated M/S Medical and Molecular Laboratories Ltd
(MML) with the key objective of supporting research. The company entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with
Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) on December 15, 2015.
The said MoU conferred upon the company, the right to use the college
labs for research work, enter into independent agreements with other parties on
the use of the laboratories and use the proceeds for promoting medical
research. Investigations
by the IGG found this contradictory to the
Finance Procedures Manual, 2014 on the university whose section 4.3 stated that
“All revenues generated by University activities and all expenditure for goods
and services must be recorded and accounted for within the University’s
accounting system.”
The report shows that the actions of the two officers amounted
to conflict of interest contrary to provisions of section 5.1 (g) of the
Makerere University Human Resources Manual. The IGG recommended that the
university revokes the MOU. The College has since commenced a process of
transforming MML activities into a Centre of Excellence upon recommendation by
the School of Biomedical Sciences to spearhead the Resource Mobilisation and
Management.