President Museveni has ordered the dismissal of Dr Godfrey Bonane Pariyo, an orthopaedic consultant at Masaka Regional Referral Hospital over complaints that he does not work.
“I am going to dismiss him in the public interest,” the President said in an October 16 directive to the Ministry for Public Service.
Mr Museveni told Minister Wilson Muruli Mukasa that he had received complaints that Dr Pariyo is “most of the time absent” from duty and used the opportunity to open the question on the practice of doctors in public service moonlighting in private practice.
He did not indicate the complainants or whether he had investigated the matter and found the complaint added up.
However, the issue of moonlighting is a never-ending question with poor pay in public service often cited, among other reasons.
In some economies, including in the southwestern neighbouring country of Rwanda, medics in public service are strictly forbidden from engaging in private practice.
But in Uganda, the same similar attempts to regulate the medics has always fallen flat, leaving behind constant moans about absentee medics when patients need them.
The President said complaints like that against Dr Pariyo “rhyme with the sentiment that was being expressed in one of the caucuses”.
Mr Museveni used the matter to revive the debate on moonlighting by medics, which at the executive level as it is now, shakes salt to the salad.
“Should government doctors continue to be allowed to have or work for private practice?” he said.
“We had allowed this because we had few doctors. Now the doctors are many and some are unemployed. Could we now make it a point for dismissal from government service for any government doctor to work for private practice?”
Mr Museveni directed Minister Mukasa to “consult the patriotic doctors for advice” on the issue of “traitorous public servants” whose “annoyance” he said has led to talk of removing public servants from the permanent and pensionable terms to contracts.
The President said he has in the past rejected the suggestion of keeping public servants on contracts becausse he did not want “our public servants to ‘Kuhahaara’ – which he explained as ‘when somebody is ever worried about something’ – although in real Kiswahili speak it means to have a troubled stomach.
He said the contracts can also be exploited by bad supervisors to coerce public servants to “do bad things”.
“In my counter-argument against contracts for public servants, I have cited the example of the UPDF. Their terms are permanent and pensionable,” he said without explaining the correlation between the two or how a UPDF soldier would possibily moonlight.
However, he said the standard operating procedures of UPDF are very strict, implying the need to throw some spikes into the level of strictness with which public service operates.
“I now direct you to write revised standing orders for the public servants so that disciplining those who misbehave is easier and faster,” he told Minister Mukasa.
The presidential directive adds to a growing list of cases where the head of state has directly stepped in to run affairs of his juniors, many times leaving his critics with enough meat on the bone to pick on,
Earlier this month, Mr Museveni issued a directive about promotion of long-serving officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In particular, he cited the case of Ms Jackie Kemirembe, who had served as a Third Secretary for over 15 years.
He has specifically recommended that Ms Kemirembe be promoted to the rank of Counsellor.
He has also previously directed the hiring of sons or grandsons of long-lost freedom fighters.
