Africa-Press – Uganda. At least 44 stranded scientists of the former Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, are demanding an urgent audience with their line minister, Dr Monica Musenero, and want the State House Comptroller Jane Barekye to clarify on their status as government employees.
The workers are also demanding that an order freezing the old ministry’s budget be reversed to release their budgeted funds.
They also say all arbitrary actions against them should be stopped.
In their September 1 petition to Parliament, signed by 44 of the 48 scientists, the workers say they have, without any notice, been denied access to their offices. They also say they were neither alerted nor given an opportunity to remove their property, with their official vehicles withdrawn, sparking off panic among the government scientists.
But Dr Musenero says government cannot sink funds into an entity that has been disbanded.
“After the ministry was abolished, the funds were moved to where Science, Technology and Innovations functions are now,” she said.
The money for operations of the ministry, the backbone of President Museveni’s vision of a science-led economy, in the current financial year, has been frozen and its staff have not been paid for two months now.
Dr Musenero, the new minister in-charge of Science, Technology and Innovation, has her docket now placed under the President’s Office.
Salary arrears
The staff say they are going through a hard time with loans tagged to their monthly salaries.
“As officers in full-time employment of the Public Service, we do not have side businesses. Some of us have fallen ill and one lost his life probably partly due to the difficulties we are going through now,” one of the staff members said.
The officer who reportedly died was a driver at the ministry.
But Dr Musenero, in a telephone interview, said in the transition period, all Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation staff salaries would be paid by State House.
She said when any entity closes, all the staff revert to the Ministry of Public Service.
She said no one has been denied any salary, except that the process has to be moved by Parliament.
“We are working to make sure as soon as Parliament approves of the money to be moved, they will even be paid the next day because the payroll has already been migrated and taken care of,” she said.
Staff locked out
But one of the affected workers said: “We never received any communication alerting us and giving us advance justification for that action,” he said. But Dr Musenero said in the transition period, all staff were directed to remain home unless required.
“Locking them out was because of the transition of offices and the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs). We left only an undersecretary to facilitate the transition and support the few staff who needed to come to the office,” she added.
Disbanded ministry
Dr Musenero said since all the assets had to be handed over to the new entity, the employees under Science, Technology and Innovation ministry will be reassigned.
She said the delayed handover from former minister Elioda Tumwesigye also affected the transition.
For not personally meeting most of the staff, Dr Musenero said it is not her primary responsibility except when called upon by the Public Service ministry to meet with the staff it presides over.
“I do it as a mother and a person responsible, but their expectations that I should be holding meetings with them are misplaced. The responsible sector which invites me is Public Service,” she said.
Presuming that the only function transferred to State House was financial and administrative control, the affected technocrats sought Parliament’s intervention in the matter.
