The Uganda Airlines shocked MPs and the public yesterday after discovery was made over their enormous salaries.
According to the Committee on Commissions, State Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE) the CEO of the Airline Ms Jennifer Bamuturaki pockets a gigantic 87 million shillings per month.
This was discovered after COSASE launched a probe into the Airlines operations. The officials of this line were criticized for pocketing huge salaries yet they are doing little to drive the national carrier to success.
The Auditor General’s report found that the CEO’s salary is at 87m shillings, the Chief Financial Officer at 73m shillings, Manager Finance at 58m shillings and the Director Maintenance at 80m shillings. The others with huge salaries are Manager ICT at shs36 million, Human Resource Shs43 million, Manager Cargo shs14million, and manager Quality Assurance shs43 million.
The chairperson of COSASE Hon Joel Ssenyonyi tasked the team from the Airlines to explain explain why some pilots earn Shs50m while others earn Shs60m.
“If the airline was making money, it would be okay; we want workers of the airline to be paid well but you made a loss of Shs 164 billion in the financial year 2020-2021, and yet people are being paid over Shs 80 million,” he said.
The Nakawa west P
MP also tasked the board to explain the irregularities in the recruitment of the CEO, Bamuturaki. She formerly worked as an aide to the former acting CEO, Capt Steven Wegoye.
Further, Ssenyonyi said that the board had embarked on a search for a new CEO through PriceWaterHouseCoopers. About 40 people applied for the job but the process was stopped after a presidential directive that saw the appointment of Bamuturaki.
The MP for Kasambya County Gaffa Mbwatekamwa expressed his shock on how some workers were earning over Shs70m in such a bad economy.
“This is alarming; we understand the high pay for pilots but administrators and directors?” he questioned.
According to Bamuturaki, they are working on reviewing the salaries as they are also in the process of conducting an audit.
She further stated that the pilots and cabin crew members salaries are different since Airbus and the Bombardier have different salary structures.
Capt Lukman Ndusa a pilot with Uganda Airlines revealed that pilots are paid in regards to the standards of most Airlines worldwide.
The Airlines was given one month by COSASE to come up with a salary structure as it emerged that most workers are outrageously and exorbitantly paid.
