Yunus Kakande, Permanent Secretary, Office of the President has revealed plans to interdict Herbert Anderson Burora, the former Deputy RCC of Rubaga Division who is currently on suspension over his remarks about alleged corruption and abuse of office in parliament.
Kakande made the revelation while appearing before Parliament’s Presidential Affairs Committee to present the 2024/25 national budget estimates for the office of the president, when Denis Oneka (Kitgum Municipality) asked him to explain what action had been taken against Burora for the derogatory remarks he made against Parliament.
Burora was suspended from office on 15th March, 2024 following his prolonged remarks in media, criticising the speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Anita Among, who of recently became a target in the ongoing social media campaign dubbed Parliament exhibition, highlighting allegations of staff recruitments that are irregular and monies that are spent in manners that aren’t understandable.
“We called him (Burora), suspended him, now we are going to send him to the reward and sanctions Committee for interdiction and be on half pay, that is the process how we weed them out. I called that RDC four times in my office, to desist from going to the press because our regulations and Public Standing Orders don’t allow them, unless I have given special permission, I advised him, he refused so what I did, I suspended him and after suspension, I am going to take him to rewards and sanctions Committee and then interdict him completely,” said Mr. Kakande.
This was after the committee chair showed concern over the need for capacity building for RDC’s, who are deployed and directly supervised under the president’s office.
“Our RDCs need to be sensitized a lot on the rules and mandates and where they should stop. What so far has been done to the Deputy RCC Rubaga who spoke derogatory message about Parliament? What has the Presidency done?” Oneka queried.
In the letter which was copied to speaker Anita Among, Kakande indicated that Burora was faulted for having violated official advice by continuing to issue or utter statements on social media without express authority from his superiors. For this, he was suspended from duty for 28 Days.
Burora was also instructed to handover the official vehicle and office to the Deputy RCC Kampala Central Ms Doreen Keita, which he did at the beginning of this week.
Interdiction of a public officer is temporary removal from office, usually to pave way for investigations over misconduct. It is part of disciplinary action but the regulations call for speedy conclusion of investigations within a period of six months, and shall receive such salary, not being less than half his or her salary, as the responsible officer shall think fit.
Regulation 38(9) also stipulates that in case the investigations fail within six months period, the interdicted public officer can appeal to the Public Service Commission for the interdiction to be lifted.