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Labour Court president Mrs Lillian Kudya ruled that Musengezi be reinstated with full salary and benefits from the date of dismissal.
“The respondent (Ministry of Transport, Communication and Infrastructure Development)’s verdict and dismissal penalty are accordingly set aside. Appellant is accordingly reinstated to his original position with full pay and benefits from the date of his dismissal.
“If reinstatement to his original position is no longer an option the parties are free to approach the court for quantification of damages,” Justice Kudya said.
Musengezi’s dismissal was prompted by the Disciplinary Hearing Committee which found him guilty of contravening the Public Service Regulations in that he failed to obey lawful instructions by issuing 119 certificates of fitness without another officer signing in the witness section in the RMT4 book and 19 Certificates of Fitness to vehicles without Operator Licences and prejudiced the State of US$2375,00.
In her ruling, Mrs Kudya noted that there were instances when Musengezi had to man the depot alone due to staff shortages.
She said the conduct complained of by the employer was not unique to appellant’s depot.
“Some of the depots documents showed that what happened at the appellant’s depot also happened at depots which were manned by one depot manager. Certificates from those other depots contained single signatures which were not witnessed notwithstanding the fact that two signatures were required for transparency purposes.
“The directive by the commission to the ministry to carry out comprehensive investigations into all depots to establish the accurate picture about the practice was not complied with,” Mrs Kudya said.
She said the charges against Musengezi were defective from the onset and the court was not under any obligation to correct defective charges.
Following his dismissal, Musengezi felt victimised and successfully appealed to the Labour Court against the decision which he described as “incompetent”.
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