The Industrial Court has awarded former Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) Managing Director, Rama Makuza, over Shs 1 billion in damages following a legal battle concerning his sacking, defamation, and alleged poor performance.
In its ruling, the court granted Makuza Shs 625 million in general damages, Shs 170 million in aggravated damages, and Shs 300 million as compensation for defamation.
Additionally, CAA has been ordered to publish formal apologies to Makuza in newspapers monthly for six months, alongside a permanent injunction to prevent further defamatory claims.
Makuza was sacked in 2017 by the Minister of Works and Transport, Eng. Monica Ntege Azuba, over performance and alleged mismanagement of CAA.
In 2019, the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Justice Irene Mulyagonja, cleared Makuza of any misconduct related to the awarding of multi-billion contracts at the airport and alleged mismanagement of the Civil Aviation Authority.
In her latest 68-page report to Parliament, Mulyagonja said that allegations that Makuza acted irregularly when he wrote a letter to the procurement manager of CAA indicating availability of funds for procurement of a contractor for the sh10b sub-projects undertaken to clear the site for the major works were “found to be untrue as CAA did not have any funds for those sub-projects.”
Following this, the IGG investigated Makuza on further allegations of CAA mismanagement, particularly his oversight of the ongoing expansion at Entebbe International Airport.
It was also alleged that Makuza unlawfully altered the contract price for the airport expansion.
After a two-year probe, Mulyagonja’s report concluded that Makuza did not mismanage the USD 324 million Entebbe airport expansion project, though it criticized CAA for signing the contract with China Construction Communications Company (CCCC) before clearing the site of encumbrances.
