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Evans Najuna
Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) deputy director Dr Kyalimpa Paul has abandoned his investment months after the infamous gratuity scandal.
When Minister Evelyne Anite exposed the lie, Kayalimpa issued a threatening notice with the intention of suing his political boss for her defamatory statements made through X (formerly Twitter).
According to the list, Anite, Dr Kyalimpa was the second beneficiary of Sh545 million honorarium after Robert Mukiza who received the lion’s share of Sh82 million while his deputy, Dr Paul Kyalimpa, received Sh58 million.
Kyalimpa, who is currently studying in the United States, has now released a handover report detailing his time at the UIA.
In the report, Kyalimpa describes himself as a UPM/NRA/NRM History and National Mobiliser, Nalubaale Medalist, Honorary Mayor and Business and Leadership Fellow He listed many achievements since his appointment as Deputy Director General of the Uganda Investment Authority on November 24, 2020.
“I was interviewed by the Public Service Commission prior to my appointment as Deputy Director General (DDG) of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) and was rated as competent. I started working on January 2, 2021 with Mzee Byensi Bakairwa Lawrence, who was then the Acting Director General, following a period of instability in the UIA leadership,” he said in the report.
Kyalimpa went on to outline the key achievements of his leadership of the UIA team.
“During my tenure as Deputy Director General, I have made outstanding contributions to UIA. When I joined UIA in January 2021, I set four goals together with the UIA leadership team. The four goals were: i) Streamlining strategies, policies and management systems and procedures; ii) Improving employee welfare; iii) Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of investor-centric services to double the value of domestic and foreign direct investment; and iv) Improving the resource package to better deliver on UIA’s mandate. I would like to report that as the No.2 Director of Investment, under the leadership and support of the Minister, the Permanent Secretary/Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and the UIA Board of Directors, I have achieved the following in the four target areas.”
According to Kayalimpa, his first task as deputy director-general in charge of the Technical Directorate is to streamline strategic, policy and management systems and procedures.
In the first six months, he reviewed and approved a performance-based strategic plan, human resources policy, and established results-based planning and performance targets for all councils. He said this brought stability to the agency and gave hope to staff, with a focus on results.
“The strategy and clear results framework guide UIA’s investment agenda, attracting and facilitating high-value and targeted investors into Uganda, and has resulted in Uganda being awarded the Best Investment Destination in East Africa and Africa awards in the past two years respectively.”
The second achievement was to improve staffing and employee welfare to fulfill UIA’s responsibilities
He said that when he gave a presentation at UIA 2nd In January 2021, many employees worked until 1pm and went home for lunch, while others returned to the office at 3pm as they would leave the office to find lunch. Some employees would eat popcorn and dry tea during their tea breaks and lunch. Why is this happening? He said lunch is not provided at the workplace and lunch allowances are rarely paid due to limited government budgets. In addition, employees are paid very low wages compared to all agencies, and some employees are able to save money to buy lunch at the end of the month. This is exacerbated by the fact that employees are overloaded with work due to limited staff and depleted fleets.
To his credit, he led the recruitment of Treasury staff and mobilisation of resources for staff welfare with the support of the then Acting Director-General, Mzee Byensi Lawrence, and the Chairperson of the Board, Dr Emily Kugonza.
“Today, UIA employees enjoy lunch at the workplace, receive quite competitive salaries and bonuses, and have purchased brand new vehicles to reach out to investors and promote Uganda as a preferred investment destination in Africa and the world. The board approved a new staff establishment and recruited more staff. UIA employees are highly motivated, work hard, and effectively represent Uganda as a competitive brand,” he said proudly.
His third achievement was to double the value of domestic and foreign direct investment by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of investor-centric services.
He is said to have taken the lead in mobilizing resources from the Ministry of Finance and working with USAID to support the preparation of regional investment profiles to assist in the annual compilation of outline investment opportunities and prepare bankable projects for domestic and foreign investors.
“These profiles and bankable projects are used to promote investment opportunities in Uganda and are available on the UIA website www.ugandainvest.go.ug Under the ‘Investment Opportunities’ link”.
He said that under the guidance and support of NRM Vice Chairman Mzee Hon. Alhaji Moses Kigongo, UIA enabled KACITA Group and mall owners to seize the opportunities provided by the government in the form of free land and tax concessions to become industrialists.
It is commendable that more than 60% of the operators in the industrial park are local investors, most of whom were (and some are still) businessmen and amusement park owners.
As the Head of SMEs, supported by Mrs Winnie Lawoko-Olwe, Kyalimpa, after two days of rest, formulated a strategy to transform the SME sector into a domestic investment sector.
He said today the sector is very active, working to transform small and medium enterprises into large domestic investors and to build links between local and foreign investors.
The Domestic Investment Department also supports the introduction of SMEs to the National SME Portal Platform https://mybusiness.go.ug Access business partners, affordable financing, marketplaces, business development service providers, and more.
To improve the efficiency of investor support services, in May 2021, Kyalimpa said he led the One Stop Centre (OSC) team, led by Mr. Kigundu Joseph, to create an efficient UIA structure and online system where investors can easily apply and the UIA team is able to review investor license applications and approve them in less than eight (8) hours.
“Today, we have an efficient investor services team that is able to respond to investor inquiries and investment permits in a timely manner, from 48 hours in 2021 to 24 hours in 2022, and today, it only takes two (2) hours when investors submit all the basic required information to the investment permit online platform. https://www.ebiz.go.ug”
Kyalimpa also announced that resources will be improved to better fulfil the UIA’s mandate.
To achieve the above three goals, he led the company to obtain support from management and the board, and funds from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, which increased UIA’s budget, including direct financing of projects from the Ministry of Finance. Employee benefits, better wages, additional personnel, a new fleet of vehicles, and financing of industrial park infrastructure are all attributed to the increased funding provided to UIA by the Ugandan government.
“I lobbied the UAID Economic Activity Program to provide project-based financing to support the establishment of a national SME portal, as well as the creation of domestic investor profiles and regional profiles and the development of value chains to promote domestic investment and attract foreign investors. These profiles help increase the visibility and market competitiveness of local investments,” he concluded.
It must be remembered that Kyalimpa vehemently defended the remuneration on July 9, saying it was legally paid to them after they were assigned additional roles in the KIBP project.
According to Kyalimpa, they did save taxpayers Sh5.9 billion.
The Sh545 million remuneration sparked controversy and led to a breakdown in relations between the International Union of Architects (UIA) trinity, namely, former team members, UIA minister-in-charge Evelyn Anite, UIA board chairman Morrison Rwakakamba and UIA director-general Robert Mukiza.
It is still unclear who will be the next to leave the UIA headquarters located at Plot 1, Baskerville Avenue, Kololo, Kampala.
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