President Museveni wrote to the Head of Public Service Alex Mitala instructing him to immediately fire the Permanent Secretary in the Coveted Energy Ministry Docket. Isabalijja’s exit barely nine months into his job came at the peak of the Maritus spell in a Ministry where intrigues and fights had crippled work, highly placed sources revealed. Speaking to NTV, Uganda Media Center Executive Director Ofwono Opondo revealed why Isabalijja was sacked. “...the President’s letter does not give any reason why Dr. Stephen Isabalijja had his contract terminated. Your guess can be as good as mine but really what is apparent is that perhaps he failed to meet the expectations of the Appointing Authority.”
Other highly placed sources revealed that the immediate cause of his sacking was in regard to the 4.5 billion dollar Oil Refinery Deal where the young technocrat burnt his fingers. Earlier on this month, Isabalijja revealed that an American and Italian Consortium had been awarded the deal to build the Refinery. In the Daily Monitor story published on August 7th, Isabalijja was quoted saying “The Consortium had already proposed to the government a financing approach and a path to establish, develop and operate a commercially viable Refinery company.” However, China’s Dongsung led Consortium which scored 83.38% and came first in the evaluation committee was aggrieved. The American led Intercontinental Asset Holdings Consortium which was awarded the deal came second with 66.78% in the evaluation report. This was what prompted a meeting between officials from the Internal Security Organization and the President effectively sealing the fate of Isabalijja, sources revealed.
Earlier on in June, the Director General of the Internal Security Organization Kaka Bagyenda wrote a letter which raised a red flag over graft related concerns in the award of the lucrative deal. In a letter seen by NTV, it raised concerns that the American and Italian Consortium Intercontinental Assets Holding Asset did not demonstrate the availability of funds and lacked the operator for the Refinery. With their clout and leverage as Uganda’s leading providers of loans and grants, the Chinese protested about what they felt was an unfair award. It was only a matter of time left to rid Isabalijja of his position. Only yesterday, the President appointed the Director of Petroleum Directorate Robert Kasande to serve in the acting capacity before he traveled to Equatorial Guinea. With quite a rich profile in Public and Policy management, Isabalijja rose to prominence when he was appointed as Board Chairperson of the Uganda Electricity Generation Company Ltd. Under his docket, he was given the role to inspect the construction of both Karuma and Isimba Dams. This role placed him in a confrontation with the Permanent Secretary for Energy Kabagambe Kalisa. Isabalijja later won the battle of Supremacy after he failed several dossiers accusing Kalisa of failing to supervise both Karuma and Isimba when they developed cracks. The President responded by sacking Kalisa and replacing him with Isabalijja last year. But in a Ministry where Isabalijja lacked technical expertise, Institutional memory and was surrounded by Kalisa’s surrogates, he was bound to get stuck in the proverbial quick sand.
