The company that has supplied electricity to Ugandans for close to 20 years is finally leaving.
UMEME Exit Will Need Gov’t To Hire Over 3000 Workers To Manage Electricity Distribution – UEDCL ED Mwesigwa
The Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE)has questioned the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA),Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL), and Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) on the findings in the December 2023 Auditor General’s report.
The queries include UEDCL response on the Shs111,278,848,000 in outstanding amounts owed by related parties and why the company lacked a succession plan for both its board and the senior management.
However,Paul Mwesigwa, Managing Director of Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited has revealed that Gov’t will need to hire over 3000 workers to manage the distribution of electricity, following the exit of Umeme on 31st March 2025, and priority will be given to the current staff of UMEME.
This was response to a question raised by Abdallah Kiwanuka (Mukono North) on Government’s preparedness to take over from Umeme whose contract is expiring 31st March 2025.
Mr. Mwesigwa informed Parliament that although Umeme is the largest distributor set to be taken over by UEDCL, there are several distributors that have been taken over between 2017 and 2024 and during the transition process, the staff found working in these smaller distribution to work for Government. He also acknowledged the drop in quality of services ahead of UMEME exit attributing to the limited access to capital for Umeme to invest, and the need for Umeme to minimize on their costs, but assured the Legislators on COSASE that these concerns too have been raised in the monthly meetings being held to discuss the transition.
“This year, we have taken over a distributor in Kyegegwa & part of Kayunga, we have engaged all the staff, interviewed them and whoever qualifies has joined. The same plan, we have for Umeme. Currently, we have 490 staff but on our business model, for us to accommodate UMEME, we shall have up to 3010 employees and Umeme has 2502 employees based on the discussion we had with them. So, we are going to engage them 100% to see whoever will be willing to join us, will be interviewed and given an appointment for UEDCL,” explained Mwesigwa.
On a related development, a section of MPs have raised concern over the drop of quality of services offered by Umeme, ahead of the electricity distributor’s exist on 31st March 2025, with some reporting a 2year delay to have transformers in their areas replaced, despite the utility services requirements demand transformers to be replaced within 5days.
The Auditor General raised concern over the delayed completion of Karuma and Isimba dams, noting that though the physical and financial progress of the construction of Karuma was at 99.9%, and Isimba 98.39% respectively, the project had exceeded the initial completion date by 54 months as at the end of 2022/23, delays UEGCL
ERA is also questioned on the failure to exhaust its wage to a tune of Shs4.04Bn, despite the Authority having several positions vacant. The Auditors noted that out of the budgeted wage funds of Shs81.8Bn for the four financial years between 2019/20 to 2022/23, Shs77.7Bn (95%) was realized.
The unutilized funds of UGX 4.04Bn were due to unfilled positions resulting from delayed recruitment processes. Out of the 98 approved positions on ERA’s structure, 79 (80%) were filled leaving 19 positions vacant.
Among other querry was on the UEGCL’s outstanding loan obligations of Shs5.061Tn relating to the construction of Karuma and Isimba Hydro Power Plants. The loans had accrued interest of Shs447.840Bn by the end of December 2023. During the interface with UEGCL, MPs are expected to query the ever increasing debts that increased by 170%, from Shs17.97Bn in 2021/22 to Shs48.49Bn in 2022/23. The Auditor General revealed that the increase was mainly due to unpaid owner’s engineer supervision cost for Karuma HPP and Isimba HPP Shs18.5Bn.