Former Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) director of human resource and administration Jabbe Pascal Osinde Osudo was illegally sent on forced leave on the minister’s orders, the court has ruled.
High Court judge Musa Ssekaana has ruled that then State Minister for Transport Joy Kabatsi acted outside her mandate to direct the Managing Director of CAA to send Osudo on forced leave in the absence of the board in May last year.
On May 29, 2020, the CAA managing director, working on the orders of the State minister, served Osudo with a letter, sending him on forced leave for six months to pave way for investigations that he had been involved in in-fighting, which prejudiced the image of the institution.
Osudo then sued the Attorney General (AG) and CAA, seeking orders to rescind the decision.
He told court that decision was tainted with illegality, impropriety, irrationality and outside the law.
Justice Ssekaana on Thursday ruled that sending Osudo to go for forced leave in absence of the CAA Board was unlawful.
“It must have assumed that the Minister of Transport would act properly and responsibly, with a view to doing what was best in the public interest and most consistent with the policy of the statute to always ensure that the Board is fully constituted in order to be given the general guidance. It is from this presumption that the courts take their warrant to impose legal bounds on even the most extensive discretion and power,” the judge explained.
He reasoned that it would be a recipe for disaster if the Minister refuses to constitute a Board required under the law and later give directives to only an individual (Managing Director) when the management is vested in an entire Board.
According to the judge, whereas the State Minister for Transport may have had good intentions in sending Osudo to forced leave, her actions fell short of authority because there was no board in existence to allow such an action of management.
“The law does not envision a situation where the Minister would be directly dealing with Managing Director without a Board of Directors. This would be contrary to the spirit o3yif the CAA Act which vests the general control of the performance and management of the undertakings and affairs of the authority,” he added.
But court declined give any orders affecting Osudo’s employment since he was no longer in the same employment after his job was already terminated.
In October 2019, the High Court ruled that Osudo was ineligible for appointment as the Director Human Resource and Administration at the time he was shortlisted and subsequently appointed by the Board.