The Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, Tom Butime has admitted talking to Nakawa West MP Joel Ssenyonyi on phone but denied threatening him on the ongoing investigations by COSASE on matters Uganda Airlines.
COSASE (Committee on Commissions Statutory Authorities) chaired by Ssenyonyi is currently investigating queries on management and recruitment of staff at Uganda Airlines as contained in the report of the Auditor General for the year ended 2021.
Preliminary findings of the Committee have pinned down the Airlines Chief Executive Officer-CEO, Jenifer Bamuturaki, and other senior officers for lack of integrity and prerequisite academic qualifications to steer successful operations of the national flagship and cargo carrier.
The Committee discovered that the Board unlawfully endorsed the appointment of Bamuturaki by President Yoweri Museveni in July 2022, after a competitive process for the selection of the ideal CEO through a consultancy firm, PriceWaterHouseCoopers was irregularly terminated.
The sudden end to the search process that cost Shillings 95 million to recruit the CEO paved way for the ring-fencing of the position for Bamuturaki, yet she had not applied for it, and 40 other candidates had already applied for the position awaiting shortlisting and subsequent interviews. The board therefore had no way of ascertaining whether Bamuturaki was certainly more competent that any or all of the 40 applicants.
Further, the Committee also discovered that prior to her elevation as CEO, Bamuturaki as the Commercial Director, and doubling as the Contracts Manager connived with then CEO Ephraim Kalyebara Bagenda to exclusively solicit for Abbavater Group Limited to undertake public relations work for the Airlines without competitive bidding process.
Consequently, the duo influenced the award of the service contract amounting to USD 540,000 (about 2.067 billion Shillings) to the Abbavater Group which flouted the procedures of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) Act of 2003.
But Ssenyonyi would later come out to accuse Minister Butime of ringing and warning him against probing the queries further or face regrettable consequences.
“Yesterday, I got a call from Tourism Minister Tom Butime, threatening and intimidating me over Uganda Airlines probe, because apparently Jennifer Bamuturaki is his relative. I have reported this at CPS (Central Police Station), Ref GEF 60/2022 for it to be on record. No one, I repeat, no one will cause me to backdown,” Ssenyonyi said.
“Butime was extremely angry, he said he is a relative to Jennifer Bamuturaki whom we are investigating yet we (COSASE) have no mandate to do it. He said he is going to mobilise all relatives of Bamuturaki so they storm my office and many other things threatening and intimidating me,” he added.
Speaking to a local television, Butime denied issuing any threats to Joel Ssenyonyi.
“I did not threaten him. I called him and we talked, that is all,” Butime said.
Meanwhile, Police Cyber Crime Unit is currently investigating the phone conversation between the duo, according to SSP Patrick Onyango, the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson.
“We are going to analyze the voice to ascertain whether that was Hon Tom Butime. It is that analysis that will guide our next course of investigation,” Onyango said.