Bamwesigye Fred Kanyangoga a liability to UCAA
The Drone Media is in possession of documents belonging to Bamwesigye Fred Kanyangoga, which show inconsistency of his profile. According to summary of observations/Audit notifications, there is mismatch in the date of birth. Kanyangoga has three different dates of birth.
The first one shows he was born on 27th November 1963 as evidenced in his passport No. B0439783 issued on 23rd July 2004. In his other passport No. B1198232, he lists his date of birth as 27th November 1967.
In his application to join Makerere University lists, he submitted his date of birth as 27th November 1964. At the times of shortlisting and interviews, Kanyangoga was well above the age limit of 35 to 55 years of age, which was key requirement. He adjusted his age (27th March 1967) to match with the job requirement. However, from the explanation, Kanyangoga was born way before 1967.
Therefore, he does not qualify for his current appointment as the Director General, UCAA for he is already above 55 years of age.
As a result of his appointment, UCAA will miss out on many things, including what The Drone Media has detailed below:
The Aviation industry is international and global in nature. Locally, the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority plays a regulatory function among others. It requires strict adherence to laws, regulations, and ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS).
Therefore, the role of a Director General as the face of CAA requires a person with impeccable character, credibility and unquestionable integrity.
The Director General and Civil Aviation Authority are charged with responsibility of regulating the industry and ensuring the compliance with effective implementation of the Eight Critical Elements.
The Critical Element 4 (CE 4) is for Personnel Training and Technical Qualifications. It will be very difficult for Fred Bamwesigye Kanyangoga, whose qualifications and age have attracted doubt to preside over this function as he will lack the moral authority to enforce effective safety oversight.
One of the key requirements is to have suitably qualified and trained personnel to ensure effective safety oversight. This forms part of the Audit from ICAO and failure of this element will lead to serious findings, which might grossly affect the industry, and this has been made worse by the misnomer.
It should be noted that a country enjoys membership to several international aviation related institutions like Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO), CASSOA, AFCAC, AATO, ACI, ICAO etc. These often-present opportunities to nationals to serve in different capacities, for instance the Director General of Tanzania CAA is currently the Chairman of Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) for African Region and CANSO Executive Committee Member.
Withis misnomer, Uganda will miss out on such representation where key decisions affecting the aviation sector are made because the current Director General will not pass the vetting process due to falsification of his records. All these institutions are very sensitive to Integrity of candidates vying for leadership positions and Uganda could be isolated and during the tenure of office of the Director General with questionable credentials.
On the local scene, operators will have no respect for UCAA and its regulatory staff arising from the fact that the DG has integrity issues.
Besides, the staff will lack the moral authority and confidence to question shortcomings especially in regard to qualification and technical training of their personnel, which is very key for safety and security of this very sensitive industry.
The Director General in person will lose respect among his peers, who are well grounded in Aviation. This will result in the country missing out on key benefits which arise out of networking with key CAA staff across the globe, as aviation is a close-knit family with personnel with high affinity for impeccable integrity.