Uganda Cancer Institute sued over irregular job recruitment

A concerned citizen has sued the Uganda Cancer Institute, challenging its job recruitment process, which, he says, is marred with irregularities.

Mr Geoffrey Okwir, in his May 27 lawsuit, contends that the recruitment process, which was conducted between October last year and April this year, was not transparent and should be quashed.

“A declaration that the respondent’s recruitment process held on October 30, 2023, to April 5, 2024, was unfair, irrational and rigged/ marred with procedural improprieties,” Mr Okwir states in his lawsuit. Court documents show on October 30, 2023, the Uganda Cancer Institute advertised several vacant positions in the local media.

Mr Okwir says he learnt about the job openings through a friend and applied for the position of biostatistician.

‘Surprise’ interview

Further, court documents show that despite meeting all the requirements for the position, Mr Okwir was not shortlisted. However, he was surprised when he was later called for an oral interview.

“Around February 2024, the applicant (Mr Okwir) received a phone call from the office of the executive director, informing him that he had been shortlisted and required to pick up his invitation letter for the oral interviews,” the court documents read in part.

“Upon checking the shortlist published on the respondent’s website, the applicant discovered that his name did not appear thereon, contrary to the information provided by the office of the executive director,” the court documents add.

Court documents further show that there was an additional job advert that was never advertised in any widely read newspapers.

The said jobs are senior accountant, senior medical physicist, laboratory technologist, senior nursing officer/ critical care, nursing officer, grants management officer, research regulatory officer, phlebotomist, and biostatistician.

“…the applicant (Mr Okwir) was then instantly issued a fresh invitation to an oral interview the afternoon of the same day, a confirmation that the recruitment process was marred with bias and irrationality in so far as the applicant’s interview did not take more than five minutes and no verification of original documents was done,” the court documents read in part.

Appeal

It adds: “…the scoring and assessment from the said interviews were tainted with bias, unfairness, and irrationality and ought to be quashed.”

Mr Okwir is now, among others, seeking the court’s orders to quash the said recruitment exercise for allegedly being tainted with procedural impropriety, irrationality, and unfairness and also order fresh recruitment.