Uganda Airlines CEO Bamuturaki Failed Performance Appraisal, says ex-Board Chair

The former Chairperson of the Board of Uganda Airlines, Perez Ahabwe, has expressed his reservation about the capacity of Jennifer Bamuturaki to run Uganda Airlines as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Ahabwe, who was the board chairperson from 2019 to early 2022 said that prior to Bamuturaki’s appointment as Uganda Airlines CEO, she had failed the annual performance appraisal as Director Commercial for allegedly being “incompetent, insubordinate and involving in financial impropriety.”

As a result, Ahabwe said that the board, acting on the appraisal report of Uganda Airlines management unanimously declined to confirm Bamuturaki as Director in charge of Commercial.

“The then CEO [Cornwell Muleya] who was Bamuturaki’s supervisor appraised and testified that she was incompetent, insubordinate and had been involved in financial impropriety……so as a board, we agreed with management that we cannot continue with this kind of person given this record,” Ahabwe, a former Member of Parliament, said.

He said this on Thursday, 08 September 2022 while appearing before the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) that is currently probing accountability flaws at the airlines as raised by the Auditor General’s report for the year ended June 2021.

Hon. Santa Okot (Aruu North County) appealed to technocrats to offer proper technical support to the appointing authorities to cure cases of irregularities and mismanagement resulting from incompetent appointees.

“The Auditor General’s report highlights loss of money from Uganda Airlines and we would like to find out whether this is as a result of mismanagement. The problem is that no one wants to tell the president the truth; you want to tell him what he wants to hear and this is what causes such problems,” Hon. Okot said.

Workers’ MP Hon. Charles Bakkabulindi, proposed that the former board chairperson meets the President and offers his opinion on the betterment of the operations and management of Uganda Airlines.