Members of Parliament have asked the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority Director General Fred Bamwesigye to produce his birth certificate and academic papers to help ascertain proof of his age.
Aviation is the most accurate industry where even a 0.0001 percentage error is not permissible as it can end in a hundred sudden deaths. It is therefore baffling to legislators that the birth date of the Uganda Civil Aviation
Authority -UCAA's Director General Fred Bamwesigye cannot be stated with specificity, leaving a whole four years' margin of error in his age.
This has prompted the Members of Parliament to ask the the DG Mr Fred Bamwesigye to produce his birth certificate and academic papers to help ascertain his age.
The Parliament Committee on Commissions Statutory
Authorities and State Enterprises -COSASE chaired by Nakawa West MP Joel
Ssenyonyi which is propping into irregularities related to expansion works at Entebbe
International Airport, has now taken interest in a petition that indicates
that Bamwesigye didn’t qualify for the CAA Director General's job that required
that the applicant should be between 35 to 55 years of Age.
Jabbe Pascal
Osinde Osudo the former Director of
Human Resource and Administration at UCAA, on October 11th petitioned the Committee saying that Bamwesigye was irregularly recruited as he didn't meet the criteria in the
advert.
Osinde also claims that Bamwesigye's academic
documents contain several discrepancies. He also argues that based on his
passport, Bamwesigye was above the 55-year age limit when he was appointed,
which was a key recruitment requirement. In his evidence backing the
petition, Osinde indicates that Bamwesigye has three dates of birth.
His passport issued on July 23, 2004, shows that
Bamwesigye was born on November 27 1963 while another passport shows that he
was born on November 27 1967.
"Mr Kanyogoga lists his birth date as
Nov 27th, 1963 on his NSSF Card number 6317900004622; Mr Kanyogoga in his
application to join Makerere University lists his birth date as 27th November
1964," reads the petition.
The petition shows that when it comes to
academics, Bamwesigye claims that he was born on November 27, 1967, and in one
of the results slips he tenders in the names of Fred Kanyogoga, he sat PLE in
1976, which implies that he joined primary one at about about one year of age.
"In his official records and CV, he indicated
that he sat PLE in 1978 as Fred Bamwesigye; he also goes ahead to list that he
had sat UCE in 1981, two years after completion of PLE," reads the petition. 'From the various
documents submitted by Fred Kanyogoga Bamwesigye, he possesses various dates of
birth and several results for PLE, UCE and UACE."
Now the Committee led by Joel
Ssenyonyi has tasked the CAA Boss appointed a week ago to bring his original
birth certificate, Primary Leaving Examinations -PLE pass slip, Ordinary and
Advanced level certificates to clarify on the issue of his age, as the discrepancies
in age would mean Bamwesigye is way beyond 55 years.
//Cue in: “And that is…
cue out:…sit P7 sir”//
Bamwesigye however told the
committee that some of the years indicated were a mistake and were corrected.
He told the committee that he will bring the documents and the committee should
proceed with the initial probe on the Entebbe Airport expansion.
He says the whistle blowers aims
were to disorganize the committee from their probe.
//Cue in: "It is actually….
Cue out:…and then proceed”//
Although several members of the
committee had insisted that the CAA boss should me tasked to provide all these
evidences, the Kazo County MP Dan Atwijukire guided that since Bamwesigye had
pledged to bring the documents, the committee should allow him do so.
Judith Achan Peace the Nwoya
Woman MP supported Atwijukire on this asking the committee to move on with the main probe.
Alex Otto
Freelancer
