Exclusive : Soroti Fruit Factory in crisis mismanagement as sexual harassment , corruption , illegality over 10 USD fund take centre stage. Whisper Eye Reports
Uganda Development Corporation’s Soroti fruits factory faces Mismanagement outburst. Whisper Eye Reports.
Whisper Eye has learnt that Soroti Fruits Factory that was launched by president Museveni last year , 2019 in April is facing nepotism , poor governance ,unending illegalities amounting from Sexaul Harrasment of workers.
Our sources have intimated to us that this year around 8th , June 2020 , six directors of the fruit factory led by a prominent lawyer Mr Paulo Exodus organised what has been termed as a coup d’ etat to over throw the chairmanship of Ms Josephine Okot.
The illegal changes saw Josephine Okot and its company secretary Mr Francis Kiwa walk out of the purported board meeting in a protest of a process the two termed as irregular and illegal.
The directors led by Paulo Ekochu , Veronica Mukyala , Cyprian Orungi , Ismail Ocan, Francis Ormebe and Jorem Opian accused Josephine of gross incompetence and being the sole reason why UDC is facing bad publicity since commercial operation were launched.
Since its launch its has faced serious accusations of failing to buy fruits from farmers in Teso Region , fixing prices of fruits different from the ones agreed upon by the board.
This marginalise local employees from the area in favor of others hired from other parts of the country.
This comes as the fruit factory is a product of 10 USD millions grant from Korea Development Agency KOICA to the government of Uganda.
The nonsense directors went ahead and voted Paulo Ekochu as the new chairperson of the Soroti Fruit Factory.
However we have been informed that the board of directors have since moved to quell the boardroom company by summoning all the warring parties to several meetings which are yet to yield positive results.
The directors say they rather resign than be headed by incompetent Josephine Okot.
Despite the protest, the directors at the helm were not moved by the walk out of Josephine Okot and Mr Kiwa Francis the company Secretary.
We have been informed that Josephine refused sexual advances of one of the top offical reason for the outburst aganist her.
However Josephine would not deny or accept when asked if sexual harassment was the order of the day at the cooperation.
This comes as the board conclusively has failed to determine the fate of over 30 former employees of Uganda Development Corporation Limited since 2016 .
The board only approved short term contracts to these workers contrary to provisions of UDC Act 2016.
The promotion of some selected few staff without even laying down any clear criteria used or no adverts to the effect is taking place at the corporation.
The same board has failed to notify the Minister of the vacancy on the board following the death of late Ambassador Julius Onen in 2019.
This comes at a time when the new executive director Patrick Birungi has been accused of discrimination ,staff rejection poor working atmosphere and bias among others.
This paints a bad image of UDC a source says. Whisper Eye has dispatched a team to get the side story of the top officials that include Mr Douglas Ndawula the factory CEO , Mr Kiwa Francis the company Secetary , Dr Patrick Birungi the ED of UDC and others for a clear view and we shall keep you posted.
More on this story will be amounted out in our next narrative.
