Labour firms blame passport mess on incompetence of government

The Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA) has said the congestion at the passport office is caused by incompetence of government workers not labour firms as claimed by the directorate of Citizenship and Immigration.

This follows reports in the media quoting the director of the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration, Maj. Gen Apollo Kasiita, as saying that the congestion at the passport office had been caused by labour firms that had failed to reschedule visits to the the office.

But in a rebuttal, UAERA chairman, Baker Akantabira said the passport's office needs to clean up its act and stop blaming labour firms.

"It is not like we are getting free things, we are paying for our services and products. If there is increased demand anyone with common sense would increase the number of printers and stations," he said.

He said if government did its job well and created jobs, there would be no need for labour export.

"They failed to provide jobs that’s why people go abroad to work. They failed to bring enough Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) so we are sending our people to see how big the world is and to expose them," he said.

The Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA) was started in 2013. Currently it has a membership of 186 organisations.

UAERA regulates and monitors the activities of member agencies together with Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.