The Parliamentary Committee on Commissions of Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises has directed the governing board of the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited to appoint a new acting Managing Director within a week as the law requires or face the legal consequences.

Reaga Okumu, Chairman of the Committee

This comes after position of the Managing Director of UEDCL fell vacant following the resignation of Irene Muloni who has since joined active politics but with the appointment of the new Managing Director was done informally. The board verbally appointed Kateera Joseph as the new Managing Director of the institution which has caused Parliament to call for fresh formal appointments of the person to take the position in the institution.

The Chairman of the committee, Reagan Okumu has told journalists at Parliament that the cause of the biggest problem in this matter is the informal and casual way in which the board appointed Kateera to take up the job of the Managing Director.

Okumu says the committee wants UEDCL to formally appoint a new MD because of the queries that need to be responded to by UEDCL and which can only be responded to by a formally appointed MD.

One of the queries raised concerning UEDCL in the 2007 Audit report is the cash in billions that UEDCL got from UMEME which was supposed to be credited to UEDCL’s account but was credited to another unnamed fixed deposit account before it was later transferred to the company’s account.

Okumu says such a query and many others need answers that can only come from the MD. He says if the MD that will be appointed by the board of the institution fails to give proper explanations to the queries because of his position as a newly appointed MD, the committee will not hesitate to summon Muloni to appear before it.

UEDCL is the institution that is responsible for the distribution of electricity in Uganda and it closely works with UMEME, the South Africa company which manages actual distribution of hydro electricity in Uganda.

By Zakaria Tiberindwa, Ultimate Media