Commenting on the monthly salaries received by the senior staff of the Uganda Airlines despite being on suspension, RX Radio’s James Onen popularly known as Fatboy has said that it would be unfair to spend such large amounts of money on one woman.
Last year in April, a number of employees from Uganda Airlines were suspended for a period of 3 months on presidential orders so as to pave the way for investigations on financial mismanagement, collusion and nepotism in staff recruitment, in addition to other issues.
Among the top 13 suspended top managers was the CEO Cornwell Muleya who is said to earn 50 million shillings monthly with allowances whereas the Finance Director Paul Turacayisenga, the Director of Commercial Procurement Rogers Wamara among other top managers earn 40 million shillings each.
During The Fatboy Show today morning, the Presenter was startled by what an individual pocketing a sum of 50 million monthly could be using it for. “But man, 50 million?! So when it lands on your account what do you do, you go eat lunch or buy new shoes?!” Fatboy asked.
“But if you’re making that kind of money, can you really have one woman? It would seem unfair to have that much money to spend and to be forced to have one when you can take care of enough. If my salary was 50 million, I think I'd have one girlfriend per hostel,” he said.
The discussion with his Co-presenter Olive Najjuma stemmed from a report by the Auditor General John Muwanga revealing that Uganda Airlines spends 2.3 billion shillings on the salaries of suspended top managers and extra pay for those appointed to act in their positions.
The President also commanded the dismissal of the board of directors. However, without workable resolutions after the period of suspension, management extended the suspension for more than 3 months with the suspended staff remaining on the same contractual terms of payment. This accounted for a total loss of 2.3 billion shillings during the 7 months from May to November 2021.
“It beats the rationale of suspension. If you suspend people and disband the board of directors, why are you still paying them? And then they have people in acting positions that are also being paid in addition to the salaries of their real positions,” Olive said.
“So in regards to the report that the government lost 2.3 billion, it means that 1.5 billion was used to pay those that were suspended and the rest was for those that remained in office because they continued to receive their initial salaries. So why suspend them after all? Leave them to work while investigations take place,” she reasoned.
Olive said that investigations are always insignificant if those that are under scrutiny continue to receive full pay, exemplifying what used to happen at her former place of work. “I remember when I was in the bank and they suspended someone, suspension would come with forfeiting their salaries for the period. So suspending people earning over 50 million and giving them salaries regardless yet you’re not quick to get to the bottom of the issue defeats the purpose at the end of the day,” she said.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, Sarah and Lesham every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.