The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) has described its decision to dismiss 82 staff over forged academic documents as a painful but necessary clean-up to protect the integrity and safety standards of Uganda’s aviation sector.
Appearing before the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) on September 8, 2026, during consideration of the December 2025 Auditor General’s report, UCAA Director General Fred Bamwesigye said the Authority has now instituted a 100% verification system for all staff going forward.
“It was a very, very painful exercise. We did it once and finished and we are continuing to do it,” Bamwesigye told the committee. “But before that, we never bothered ourselves, we thought that Ugandans always are very, very honest, especially when you check the original certificates. That was really the problem, but we think that is the past. Going forward, everybody is checked. Now we cannot have such cases.”
Bamwesigye explained that for years, UCAA’s recruitment focused mainly on verifying original academic documents presented by candidates and on specialised industry qualifications, without routinely cross-checking with the awarding institutions.
He said the anomaly was discovered about two to three years ago during a recruitment exercise when the Authority detected forged papers in a new batch, prompting a full organization-wide verification.
“We got them, we are talking about 82 people but the certificates forged were more than one. So, we found so many documents and we began now to be very careful in checking even before we recruit but that was never practised before,” he said.
“Surprisingly, these people who possess industry qualifications failed on those initial academic documents. Someone is actually an accomplished aviation practitioner but when you check backwards at all levels, you find that he has forged papers,” Bamwesigye added.
The matter was raised by COSASE Chairperson Muwada Nkunyingi (Kyadondo East), who questioned whether UCAA had safeguards in its human resource system and why it took years to detect the forgeries.
“Were these people hand-picked and recruited or smuggled on the payroll of civil aviation? How do we have a department of human resource and it takes years to realise that some of these officials forged documents?” Muwada asked.
Sabah Ahmed Kakooza, Director Human Resource and Administration at UCAA, told the committee that all 82 staff were taken through due disciplinary process before dismissal. She dismissed claims of wrongful termination, noting that the affected staff have opted to petition political offices instead of seeking redress in the Labour Court or Industrial Court Tribunal because the evidence of forgery is clear.
“When you’re in such a situation, you continue to seek for a chance to be heard. These people will not rest until maybe one day they get what they are looking for,” Kakooza said.
On what action has been taken to recover public funds, Kakooza revealed that UCAA has withheld terminal benefits for all dismissed staff on grounds that they obtained jobs fraudulently.
“We have not paid the terminal benefits to these people for the period they worked, because they don’t qualify due to the fact that they attained these jobs using forged academic documents. We have 100% complied with our internal processes,” she said.
Bamwesigye told the committee that disciplinary action is routine in aviation due to the sensitive nature of airport operations, including cases of staff aiding smugglers. He stressed that there is no institutional enmity against the dismissed staff, describing many of them as previously best-performing and trained by UCAA.
“Frankly speaking, it was extremely painful, these were a part and parcel of some of our best performing staff. It was very, very, very hard to discuss these matters at various fora because they were in our systems, they had been trained by us,” he said.
The DG welcomed a proposal by Chairperson Muwada to hold a counselling and guidance engagement with the affected former staff to rebuild harmony, assuring the committee that no retaliation or manhunt is being carried out against them.
“There is no personal or institutional enmity between us and these people. If they are looking at us, let them know that, from me at least,” Bamwesigye said.
UCAA said the clean-up has now strengthened its recruitment system and aligned it with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety and personnel integrity requirements, which demand that no person with falsified credentials handles aviation safety functions at Entebbe International Airport and other aerodromes.
