The airport supervisory agency, the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) through an official public notice issued today 19th January 2023, has apologized to the general public for issues raised by the public and assured the public that it doesn’t condone acts of negligence and assures the public that action will be taken like it has done before.
The statement comes after several videos have been trending on social media like TikTok and Twitter where airport officials are accused of rampant corruption, extortion and negligence. In one of the trending clips, an airport official is seen using her phone several times instead of attending to the long queue of people waiting to be attended to.
“….. we would like to assure the public that previously reported cases with specific details have been thoroughly investigated and where staff of various agencies operating at the airport were found culpable, serious disciplinary action was taken,” writes UCCA.
However, UCCA has indicated that there is nothing much they can do at the moment regarding the trending videos since specific information about the alleged corrupt staff was not clearly stated.
“Unfortunately, none of the regurgitated trending videos specifically states a particular check point, time, day and flight details of when the alleged extortion may have taken place. This would help the investigations. We are contacting the parties in the Tik-Tok videos to share the information that can guide us to take action,” reads the letter.
The Authority says they have investigated such generalized claims on social media but hit a deadlock after no specific information was provided to corroborate the claims.
UCCA also assures the public that they are consulting the video footage recorded by their strategically placed cameras to help in the investigation.
“The airport has cameras placed in strategic places for strategic reasons and to enable UCAA address issues when they occur,” says UCAA.
The Authority also urges the public not to engage in any forms of criminality and asks the public to report any forms of negligence or extortion from its staff.