Mubs paralyzed by top dogs row
Tuesday 07 January 2014
New Vision
What began as a quiet power fight between the principal of
Makerere University Business School, Waswa Balunywa, and his deputy, Dr Samuel
Ssejjaaka, has come to a head with an investigation that reveals interesting
findings.
In August 2012,
Balunywa was out of the country. Consequently, his deputy Ssejjaaka was in
charge.
Dr Ssejjaaka, who is
ordinarily in charge of academics at Mubs, was keen to improve capacity among a
number of staff who had earned PhDs.
He made some promotions
and among those promoted was Dr Moses Muhwezi, called on to become director for
Quality Assurance.
On his return, an angry Prof Balunywa reversed the promotions,
arguing that they had been made without sufficient consultation.
The decision was humiliating for Ssejjaaka. He was left an angry
man, realising that his authority had been violated. Many employees at Mubs
were also taken aback by Balunywa’s decision.
“If you are not a very strong person, it can leave you with a
bruised ego, and you even fail in your work here,” an employee said. The matter
simply ignited what is now a long-running wrangle between the two men.
Officials at Mubs say Balunywa and Ssejjaaka have since been
engaged in a cold war, including trading angry letters. Ironically, they had
been close friends and worked well together to establish Mubs.
Alarmed at the sudden hostility between the two, the former
chairman of the Mubs Council, Dr Colin Sentongo and his deputy Dr Frank Ssebowa
intervened. Both spoke to the two men on two separate occasions but failed to
reunite them.
Committee report
After this intervention failed, the Mubs council sat on October
14, 2013 and set up a three-person committee. It was composed of Dr John
Kiyaga-Nsubuga as chairman and Victoria S Byoma and Steven Kasangaki as
members.
The committee studied correspondences between Balunywa and
Ssejjaaka and interviewed the two feuding officials as well as other staff. The
committee wrote its report on November 12, 2013 and presented it to the Mubs
council for consideration.
The council has since asked Balunywa and Ssejjaaka to write,
explaining what they intend to do about the report’s findings.
Committee findings
According to a copy of the report that The Observer has seen,
Balunywa accuses Ssejjaaka of underperforming in his duties, which include
supervising academic programmes. On the other hand, Ssejjaaka complains that
although the two are peers, Balunywa treats him like a junior partner and does
not respect him.
He also complains that Balunywa routinely reverses the deputy
principal’s decisions “with little regard to the humiliation and loss of face
that this causes him.”
The committee concluded that the conflict resulted from flaws in
the institution’s structure, which was previously overlooked because the two were
friends.
“The deputy principal is supposed to be in charge of academic
affairs, but the deans do not report to him. They report to the principal,”
reads the report in part.
The report adds that the principal has too much power and
influence at the institution.
“With the exception of the internal auditor, who reports to the
Audit Committee of Council, all the other 15 senior staff report to the
principal,” the report reads.
The committee concluded that this would mean that the principal is
swamped with administrative duties without enough time for strategic issues,
while the deputy principal relies on work delegated to him by the principal.
Recommendation
The committee recommends that Balunywa and Ssejjaaka should work
to repair their relationship either by themselves or through a mediator,
suggesting Prof John C. Munene, another senior member of staff. The committee
also suggests a revision of the institution’s structure to put academic affairs
directly under the deputy principal’s ambit, to make the office holder’s
support to the principal and Mubs more clear cut.
The committee further tasked Mubs to comply with their obligation
to give the deputy principal a car or compensate him accordingly.
“The fact that the school has not been able to buy him a vehicle
due to financial constraints does not remove his entitlement,” the report
concludes.
Meanwhile, Muhwezi, whose appointment was revoked by Balunywa, has
since been promoted by the principal to dean of the faculty of Entrepreneurship
and Business Administration.
Other view
A long-serving Mubs staffer has told us on condition of
anonymity that the real feud between the two men was caused by the knowledge
that Ssejjaaka’s contract expires in July.
“Balunywa may be privately hoping that Ssejjaaka is not popular
with council, the appointing authority, which would make it easier to dispense
with the deputy principal,” the staffer said.
Another staffer added that Balunywa might have his eye on another
employee becoming deputy principal.
“In the past Ssejjaaka did not raise a finger when others were
being shown the exit, his time has come – that is how things are here.”
No comments:
Post a Comment