Uganda Airlines is currently interviewing slightly over 90 shortlisted candidates, out of 1,000 applicants, who are seeking to fill 16 top jobs.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Ms Priscilla Mirembe Serukka, the Uganda Airlines chairperson, told Media that the recently advertised top positions had attracted 1,000 applicants and the first set of interviews had been conducted on Monday.
“The application process ended and the first set of interviews was conducted on October 31 [Monday]. For the 16 positions we received an overwhelming number of applications, which were nearly 1,000,” she said.
However, she noted, the board could not find a qualifying applicant for the position of commercial director, which has since been re-advertised.
“The board, which is conducting the exercise, failed to get a qualifying candidate or application for the position of the chief commercial officer. We took a position to re-advertise the position because we were not so sure we got what we had wanted,” she said.
Uganda Airlines, in September advertised 16 top jobs in a process, in which the carrier sought to fill a number of positions, among which included head of flight operations, head of grounds operations, company secretary, manager quality and monitoring and senior manager information technology and data management.
Other positions included head of maintenance and engineering, manager cabin services, manager human resources and manager internal audit.
The airline also indicated that employees, who had been working in acting roles, would be required to reapply, noting that the board had felt that some jobs were never competitively filled from the beginning.
“We have requested some people to reapply .. .” Ms Serukka told Monitor in September.
Ms Serukka was appointed Uganda Airlines chairperson in April, replacing Mr Perez Ahebwa, whose board was suspended and eventually disbanded over alleged mismanagement.
The airline, which has since moved to fill vacant positions, appointed Ms Jennifer Bamuturaki as the chief executive officer in July, who had been in acting role following the sacking of Mr Cornwell Muleya and other top managers over alleged corruption.
Mr Muleya has since been prosecuted over a number of charges but was this week acquitted.
Yesterday, Ms Serukka indicated that the second and last set of interview would be conducted on November 7, noting that turn up is testament of the powerful brand that Uganda Airlines has built in a short time despite some challenges.
Shortlisted
Sources close to the matter, who asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorised to speak about it, indicated that 21 candidates were shortlisted for the position of human resource manager, seven for company secretary and four for the chief financial officer.
Three candidates were shortlisted for the position of flight operations, nine for ground operations and four for quality manager. 30 were shortlisted for ground handling, four for chief pilot and four for head of maintenance and engineering.
According to Ms Serukka those who will sail through the interviews will start work around December or January.
