Kampala USD15M Power project hit by an ugly scandal of the Chief Engineer using a colleague’s CV to land the lucrative job

KAMPALA, Uganda: Engineer Norbert Semitala, the top man at the engineering firm which won the big-money job, has come under the spotlight for using another engineer’s Curriculum Vitae to secure the lucrative job, the Investigator reports.

His professional colleague, Engineer Frank Magoba has blown the lid off the alleged scam. Magoba is the boss of Kaizen Africa Engineering Limited. He claims Semitala used his superior CV to negotiate for the deal which he eventually secured for NS Engineering Limited. Semitala owns the firm located on plot 13 Mukwano road in Kampala. “He took my CV saying he was going to secure the tender for me. He used it (the CV) to secure the tender for himself instead. He then covertly cut me out of the job,” Magoba moans.

On handing over the CV, Magoba sat back praying for positive news from the prospective employer, Uganda Electricity Transmission Company (UETCL). He did not hear again from the man who had gone to broker the deal ‘for him’. On the contrary, he received a phone call from a colleague, Engineer John Bukenya on February 24^th 2020, asking him why he had not attended a very crucial meeting pertaining to the aforementioned job.

He pried further, but it was a little too late. “I realized that Semitala had actually used my Curriculum Vitae to further his selfish interests and not to secure me a contract which was the purpose for which he had intimated whilst requesting for my credentials.”

On confirming the veracity of the unpleasant news, Magoba reached out to his friend. But, Semitala had changed into a man who was not willing to listen to any of the concessions Magoba was talking about. Semitala had won the tender. And he wasn’t willing to execute it jointly with Magoba nor surrender any of the money accruing from the job.

Having failed to convince Semitala to settle the matter amicably, Magoba has resorted to courts of law. His lawyers of Kawalya and company advocates filed a lawsuit at the commercial section of the High Court seeking a total of UGX500m.

Magoba’s case is that Semitala stood no chance of winning the tender. That this is the reason why he asked for his CV to mislead the tender award committee that he was part of the team that was going to implement the tender or that he was an employee of NS Engineering Limited which is not the case.

That in fact, Semitala has since employed a retired Telecom Engineer who he coached to impersonate him (Magoba) yet he isn’t an electrical Engineer. He fears that the act of impersonating him is going to tarnish his reputation as a prolific electrical engineer in case things go wrong during the execution of the tender.

But, before going to court, Semitala’s lawyers had written to Magoba telling him how the CV he is talking about had proved to be a non-starter in the negotiation and final grant of the tender. Semitala’s lawyers are known as Mbeeta, Kamya and company advocates.  They dared him to go ahead and sue their client. Semitala chose not to say anything when we sought to hear from him.