Parliament’s probe into alleged corruption at the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) hit a roadblock on Wednesday after the authority’s Director General and Accounting Officer, Fred K. Bamwesigye, failed to appear before the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE).
Bamwesigye reportedly did not turn up because he was in Berlin, Germany, for medical treatment.
The committee, chaired by Muwada Nkunyingi, had summoned UCAA officials to Parliament to respond to audit queries and allegations contained in a July 17, 2026 presidential directive alleging “massive corruption” at the Ministry of Works and Transport and UCAA.
The officials who appeared were led by Olive Birungi Lumonya, UCAA’s Deputy Director General, who told the committee that she had been acting as Director General for 33 days.
“Chair, I have been acting Director General for this position now for 33 days,” Lumonya told MPs.
But before allowing the inquiry to proceed, Nkunyingi demanded that Lumonya produce the instruments under which she was appointed and authorised to act.
The chair said the committee first needed to establish whether Lumonya had lawfully assumed the powers she was exercising.
That concern triggered a wider debate over the legal status of acting appointments at UCAA and whether an acting chief executive automatically becomes the authority’s Accounting Officer.
The UCAA Act, Cap. 354, provides in Section 16 that the Deputy Managing Director assists the Managing Director and “perform[s] the duties of the managing director in the absence of the managing director.”
It also provides that the Deputy Managing Director is appointed by the responsible minister on the recommendation of the board and is responsible to the Managing Director.
But the Public Finance Management Act, 2015 requires an Accounting Officer to control the regularity and proper use of public money, authorise commitments, control public resources and establish effective risk-management, internal-control and internal-audit systems.
The Act further makes the Accounting Officer personally accountable to Parliament for the activities of the vote.
Lugazi Municipality MP Richard Ssenteza argued that Lumonya could only become Accounting Officer if the substantive office became vacant through dismissal, death, or another circumstance permanently removing the office-holder, not merely because the substantive head was temporarily away.
The inquiry is also being driven by a presidential directive dated July 17, 2026, which alleged widespread corruption in the Ministry of Works and Transport and UCAA.
According to the directive read by Lumonya, President Yoweri Museveni cited delays in road construction, repairs and maintenance, the Mpigi Expressway, the Mubende–Fort Portal and Masaka–Mutukula roads, Jinja Road, non-functioning scanners at Entebbe International Airport and alleged attempts to increase the cost of AFCON-related roads.
The directive invoked Article 99 of the Constitution, under which executive authority is vested in the President and exercised in accordance with the Constitution and laws of Uganda.
The President directed that six officials in the Ministry and UCAA be “retired in the public interest” and ordered them to vacate office and organise handovers.
Among those named in relation to UCAA were Eng. Soma Ayub, then Director of Airport and Aviation Security; Hellen Wenene Mary, Director of Legal Affairs; and Eng. Ronald Twesigye, identified as Head of the Contracts Committee.
Lumonya told MPs that on July 21, the Ministry of Works and Transport wrote to UCAA’s then Director General, attaching the presidential directive and instructing the authority to implement it.
She said the three UCAA officials named in the communication subsequently handed over their offices, property and assets. “Chair and Members, all the said persons have handed over all the properties and assets,” Lumonya said. Nkunyingi then asked how their replacements were appointed in acting positions.
Lumonya said the authority relied on appointment procedures and its Human Resource Manual, and that she immediately communicated the presidential directive to the UCAA Board.
The allegations also provoked concern among MPs over the danger of painting the entire authority with the brush of corruption.
Buzaaya County MP Martin Muzaale Kisule Mugabi questioned why the presidential directive singled out particular officials while the ministerial communication was interpreted as suggesting that UCAA was broadly compromised.
“I believe we have the right people and witnesses before the committee, but I am disturbed that the President identifies the corrupt out of a pool of many people in the entity in question,” Mugabi said.
“If the statement is that UCAA is a rotten entity, full of corrupt people, then should I brand all the officials who are here as corrupt?”
Nkunyingi said the presidential allegations dovetailed with concerns raised by the Auditor General in the authority’s financial and performance audits.
The Office of the Auditor General lists a specific UCAA audit for financial year 2024/25, alongside earlier audits of the authority.
Nkunyingi said the committee was particularly interested in observations concerning underutilised or non-utilised assets, non-implemented projects and procurement-related costs.
“The directive from the Head of State also mentions non-functioning scanners. You can see that as we interrogate UCAA, there is a lot to dig deeper,” he said.
Jinja South Division West MP Timothy Batuwa Lusala said the committee should establish whether UCAA’s internal audit function had previously raised concerns about the conduct of officials subsequently removed from office. “As we interrogate the Auditor General’s report, the questions establishing the legality of the people in the various acting positions will form part of our report,” Batuwa said.
The committee ultimately decided that it could not proceed effectively without resolving the questions surrounding the authority’s leadership and the absence of its substantive accounting officer.
Nkunyingi said the committee would instead conduct a physical inspection of UCAA facilities at Entebbe before deciding when to summon the board.
“Civil Aviation Authority, we shall do a field visit at your premises in Entebbe tomorrow, Thursday, 20 August 2026, at 8:00 am, and then we shall decide when to engage the Board of Directors for further scrutiny of your operations,” he said.
“We cannot allow these two entities, the Ministry of Works and Transport and UCAA, to play with time. We had invited UCAA two weeks ago; they requested to appear today.”-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
