ANALYSIS: Uganda Telecom troubles

Nandala’s document allege that the four top officials’ including the managing director, the chief financial officer, chief legal officer and chief human resource officer were earning a total of Ushs 420 million per month, the lowest amongst these four getting Ushs60 million while the highest was earning Shs 150 million.

The total amount earned by the top four officials is a third of the entire 500 workers of the company, according to the dossier. Kaboyo seems to agree with this as he did not dispute the figures.

On travels by top management, Kaboyo agreed that officials travel for business reasons. For instance, the Dubai/Malta Board meetings which MP Mafabi presented in Parliament, Kaboyo said, the costs were entirely met by the majority shareholder – LAP GreenN and that they travelled to explore avenues of capital mobilization.

Going by the details in the dossier, Kaboyo and his team appeared to be presiding over a very complicated and fraudulent company since taking over as Board of Directors Chairman in February 2014.

Minimal successes

Amid challenges, Kaboyo said, they are committed to turning around the company. Already, he said, all aspects of the company and its cost structure in fine detail are being analyzed. As part of this effort, he said, company revenues during his time in office has increased by 13%, operational expenses have gone down by 8% and operational deficit has decreased by 23%, a position and overall trend the company has not seen for many years.

Whereas, Kaboyo is boasting with that minimal performance, a former top manager, who preferred anonymity to speak freely, told The Independent that the company’s management has to deal properly with issues regarding corporate management, financial accountability and human resource issues.

The sourced also said the company is badly in need of capital injection to fund their entire infrastructure that is now aged.

Indeed, a few months ago, UCC threatened to revoke the license of the company unless it improved its quality of service. Top managers have been lobbying government and LAP GreenN among other potential investors to find capital to inject in the company to escape UCC’s ‘sharp’ teeth.

It is reported that most of the company’s customers especially on voice and data have left and joined other networks.

However, those that are still loyal to the company are not sure of tomorrow.

“I hold a UTL line alongside another line of another company,” said Josephine a customer, “I can’t drop it because most of my friends call on it. I pray that the situation gets better.”

Kaboyo, however, said the implementation of the strategy is not yet in full gear and it awaits capital injection.

“And that is why you are hearing of those Dubai/Malta meetings,” he said, “we are looking for capital.”

Corporate governance advice

Kaboyo might also need to listen to corporate governance experts on what they say especially on frequent changes of top managers at UTL.

Japheth Katto, a corporate governance consultant and former CEO of Capital Markets Authority says frequent change of chief executives is generally not good for an organisation because it creates uncertainty.

“Each new CEO will have a different leadership style and it takes time for staff and stakeholders to adjust which could affect performance in the short term,” Katto told this reporter recently, adding that if there is good reason to change the CEO, then a change has to be made if that serves the best interest of the organisation.

Other analysts say Mafabi’s deadly exposure of the company might affect efforts of capital mobilization by top management.

Koboyo could have scored marks when he hurriedly called a press conference to respond to the allegations as a crisis management strategy but ultimately, if there is a problem that needs fixing, people will judge him more on what he will do about the situation than what the situation originally was.

The public will also wait to see what will happen after parliament investigate the allegations of the company.

****

editor@independent.co.ug