Gulu University acting secretary, Asaph Adedua has faced dismissal from the institution by the Parliamentary Accounting Committee (PAC) following his acts of recruiting new staff members while the university is closed during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The ministry of Public Service issued a circular in March stopping all recruitment in this period but this didn’t stop Gulu University from recruiting 62 new staff members. Among these, 33 were teaching staff and the rest were on the non-teaching staff.
When asked as to why this was done, Adedua told the PAC that the university urgently needed to recruit new staff in order to be ready for work once the lockdown is lifted.
Contrary to the recruitment procedures, there were no advertisements done for the available positions and the University Secretary told the PAC that the appointments committee sat on 10th June and confirmed the recruitment of the new staff members.
Among the newly appointed staff were Heads of departments, deans of faculties and others in the non teaching staff and this annoyed the head of the PAC Nandala Mafabi asking who the Heads of departments were to head during the lockdown.
The Parliamentary Accounting Committee then went ahead to ask for the withdrawal of Adebua’s appointment letter subjecting him to not understanding his duties.
