Constitution

FORUM FOR INTEGRITY IN LEADERSHIP

Preamble

Whereas,

Africa is a continent of many paradoxes that may not easily be explained; a continent of multi-colored blessings with a favorable climate in most parts and yet ridden with poverty; a land mass bigger than US, Europe, China, India, Argentina and New Zealand put together, but without enough food to feed her people; yet by 1997, Belgium had only the equivalent of 2% of Africa’s population and a higher GDP than that of all African countries put together.

And whereas,

The continent has one of the largest fresh water systems in the world in the form of many rivers and lakes, yet the continent suffers from drought and insufficient Hydro Electricity.

And whereas,

Africa produces the highest percentage of the world’s gold supply; has the largest reserves of diamonds, copper, bauxite, manganese, nickel, platinum, cobalt, radium, germanium, lithium, titanium and phosphates; yet this continent has the world’s poorest of the poor and is considered a third world continent in as far as economic development is concerned.

And whereas,

Africa is a continent characterized by poor leadership, poverty, corruption, civil wars, unemployment, greed, selfishness, disease, mismanagement of resources, and the like and social problems such as crime, drug abuse, pornography and other forms of immorality are on the rise in most African countries.

And whereas,

The human resource is the greatest resource any nation can have; yet Africa loses huge numbers of skilled professionals every year because of economic hardships, instability, poor handling of human resources and inability to create a conducive environment for African professionals to stay on the continent. This brain drain is the main cause of Africa’s dilemma. In fact it is considered a great success in Uganda for one to have his or her children studying and eventually outside the continent, Japan and India on the other hand are utilizing their skilled human resources to develop their economies.

And whereas,

Uganda, in spite of her population being mainly Christian and Muslim, is faced with challenges of witchcraft, corruption, endless wars, poverty, greed, abuse of power, rebellion, and other draw backs. This is a country which was once referred to as “The Pearl of Africa”, a country whose motto is “For God and my Country.”

And whereas,

Uganda has attempted a number of innovations to solve her people’s problems, including structural adjustment, modernizing agriculture, liberalization and privatization, to mention but a few, the 2003/4 national budget indicated that the economy grew by about 4.9% and yet to maintain the present level of poverty, African countries economies must grow at a rate beyond 5%. For Uganda with one of the highest population growth rates in the world (3.4%), the rate of economic growth should be at least 8%, if she is to catch up with the level at which the country was at in 1969.

Now therefore,

Africa’s problem and indeed Uganda’s main challenge is a leadership challenge; for everything rises and falls on leadership. Uganda’s suffering stems from the hearts and minds of her people. Uganda needs leaders whose hearts have been transformed in order to transform the nation. She needs leaders who will adopt tested principles of leadership to transform the nation. She needs leaders who are selfless enough to serve her vulnerable population; those who will serve as “salt”, to prevent corruption and bring flavor; and “light”, to give direction and drive out the fear of darkness and lack of transparency.

And therefore,

We the persons whose names and addresses are appended to this Constitution do hereby constitute ourselves into Founding members of the Forum for Integrity in Leadership, a political organization to execute the mandate herein-above mentioned and to implement the aims and objectives of this Constitution which we adopt for the Forum for Integrity in Leadership.

PART 1: NAME, HEADQUARTERS AND SYMBOLS

Article 1 Name and Legal Status

1.1 The name of the organization shall be the Forum for Integrity in Leadership, herein after referred to as FIL.

1.2 FIL shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal and may sue or be sued in it’s corporate name.

Article 2 Headquarters

2.1 The Headquarters of FIL shall be in Kampala.

Article 3 Identifying symbols

3.1 FIL’s emblem, motto and colors are as described at schedule 1 of this Constitution.

PART 2 VISION, MISSION, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

Article 4 Vision

The organizations vision for Uganda is a healthy, God fearing, growing and developed nation that is raising leaders and other resources for Africa and the rest of the rest of the World.

Article 5 Mission

The Organization's mission is to build a God fearing nation with a growing capacity to resource Africa and the World with her blessings.

Article 6 Aims and Objectives

6.1 The main objective of the Organization is to transform the leadership of Uganda by directly participating in elections for all public offices under the Constitution of The Republic of Uganda.

6.2 Other aims and objectives of the Organization include;

a. upholding the national Constitution and motto.

b. building leadership at all levels of society beginning with the family unit.

c_building and upholding morals that will shape the nation.

d. effectively dealing with corruption at all levels of society.

e. supporting wealth creation

- for the transformation of the economy through household agriculture, industrial revolution, raising resource managers

- by supporting investment and entrepreneurs who will produce wealth and attract skilled professionals who hitherto leave the country and develop economies of host nations

- in order to make politics less dangerous

f. supporting education and learning for all, and transforming the education system to produce job creators and wealth generators rather than job seekers.

g. ensuring national security and stability.

h. transforming the Judiciary and protecting the helpless and poor by ensuring justice.

i. ensuring the social welfare of our people through designing and adopting effective health and retirement schemes and development of appropriate housing and other forms of physical infrastructure.

PART 3 ORGANS, COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANIZATION

Article 7 Organizational Structure

7.1 The Organization shall have a bottom-to-top and top-to-bottom structure as illustrated hereunder;

National Leadership forum called General Assembly (GA)

District Leadership forum called District Assembly (DA)

Constituency Leadership forum called Constituency Assembly (CA)

Sub-County Leadership Forum called Sub-county Assembly (SA)

Parish Leadership Forum called Parish Assembly (PA)

Village Leadership forum called Village Assembly (VA)

Article 8 The General Assembly

8.1 There shall be a General Assembly (GA), which shall be the supreme organ of the Organization.

8.2 The GA shall consist of voting members who shall be District representatives.

8.3 Each District shall have a minimum of five representatives in the General Assembly except Kampala which will have five representatives per Division.

8.4 Each District including Kampala shall be represented by 1 disabled member

8.5 Each District shall be represented by 1 woman representative and 1 youth representative except Kampala which will have 1 woman representative and 1 youth representative per Division.

8.6 All FIL members of Parliament will be automatically members of GA.

8.7 The President, with the approval of SC, shall nominate to the GA, 10 ex officio members from among eminent persons and leaders of Society.

These will serve to give guidance and enrich debate within the GA but have no voting rights.

8.8 The functions of the GA shall be as follows;

a. to determine and articulate the principles, policies and programs of FIL,

b. to generate consensus on key political, economic and social policies within FIL,

c. to elect the President, Vice President and Secretary General of FIL.

d. to prescribe functions, terms and qualifications of membership of all organs and offices of the organization from time to time.

e. to amend and promulgate the Constitution of FIL.

Article 9 The Standing Committee

9.1 There shall be an executive committee of the General Assembly called The Standing Committee . This shall be comprised of The President, Vice President, Secretary General and such other members as shall be nominated by the President and approved by the General Assembly.

9.2 The functions of the Standing Committee shall be as follows;

a. to initiate policy proposals for the General Assembly’s consideration.

b. to approve annual budgets of FIL’s activities.

c. to determine the positions of for full time employment within FIL

d. to determine the terms and conditions of service of employees and other officers of FIL

e. to appoint ad hoc committees with defined terms of reference for specific assignments.

f. to promulgate rules, regulations or bye-laws of the Organisation.

g. to institute such additional policy, administrative and other organs as may be deemed prudent for the furtherance of the objectives of FIL.

Article 10 The National Secretariat

10.1 There shall be a National Secretariat headed by the Secretary General and staffed by such other Secretaries and officers as shall be determined by SC.

The functions of the National Secretariat shall include the following;

a. to ensure implementation of the decisions of the GA and SC,

b. to prepare relevant papers and documents to guide the GA and SC,

c. to advise the GA and SC

d. to provide administrative and secretarial services to the GA and SC,

e. overall coordination of the organs of FIL

f. such other functions as may be assigned to it by SC

Article 11 The President, Vice President and Secretary General

11.1 The President, Vice President and Secretary General of FIL shall be elected through procedures to be prescribed by the GA at the first National Convention.

11.2 The President shall automatically be FIL’s Presidential candidate in the National Elections.

11.3 The FIL President shall have not more than 3 terms of five years each except when he/she is occupying the Office of the President of Uganda.

11.4 The FIL President, upon relinquishing the Office of the President of Uganda shall automatically relinquish the FIL Presidency.

Article 12 The Village Assembly

12.1 A Village assembly comprised of all members of the Organisation resident in that village shall have an Executive Committee comprised of The Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary for Information and Public Relations, Projects Coordinator, Women mobiliser, Youth mobiliser, and Secretary for Human Rights anti-corruption.

12.2 The Village Assembly shall be represented by the Chairperson, the Women mobiliser the Youth mobiliser at the Parish Assembly.

Article 13 The Parish Assembly

13.1 A Parish Assembly comprised of The Chairpersons, Women mobiliser Youth mobiliser, from all the Villages of the Parish shall elect it’s executive committee of similar offices.

13.2 The Parish Assembly shall be represented by the Chairperson, Youth mobiliser and a representative of the disabled elected from the entire parish to represent the parish at the Sub-county Assembly.

Article 14 The Sub-county Assembly

14.1 The Sub-county Assembly, comprised of the Chairpersons, the Secretary for Women, the Secretary for Youth and a representative of the disabled from all the Parishes of the Sub-county shall elect it’s own Executive Committee with similar offices as at the Parish level.

14.2 The Sub-county Assembly shall send the Chairperson, the Secretary for women, the Secretary for Youth and a representative for the disabled to represent them at the Constituency Assembly.

Article 15 The Constituency Assembly

15.1 The Constituency Assembly comprised of the Chairpersons, the Women mobiliser, the Youth mobiliser, the representative for the disabled from all the sub-counties in the Constituency shall elect it’s own Executive Committee with similar offices as at the Parish level.

15.2 The Constituency Assembly shall be represented by it’s Chairperson, women mobiliser, youth mobiliser at the District Assembly.

15.3 The minimum academic qualifications for one to be a member of the Constituency Assembly and other higher level organs and offices shall be Ordinary levels school certificate or it’s equivalent, subject to prescription by the GA.

Article 16 The District Assembly

16.1 The District Assembly comprised of Chairpersons, Women Representative, Youth representative and a Representative of the disabled persons from all the Constituencies of the District shall elect from within or without itself two members, one woman, one youth, one disabled to represent the District as delegate to the GA.

PART 4 GENERAL

Article 17 Membership

Membership of FIL shall be open to all Ugandans irrespective of ethnicity, sex, tribe, creed or religion, birth, economic status, race, and physical disability who share the values upon which this Constitution is based and pay membership fees and annual subscription fees as shall be determined by the GA.

Article 18 Meetings

18.1 The quorum for meetings of any organ of FIL shall be one third of the members of that organ.

18.2 Any organ of FIL may conduct business notwithstanding vacancies in it’s membership.

18.3 The Chairperson of any organ within FIL shall have the authority to convene a meeting as often as it is necessary to do so.

18.4 The Chairperson shall have the authority to expel any divisive and disruptive member of a meeting of FIL after 2 public warnings.

Article 19 Finances

19.1 The sources of funds for FIL shall consist of ;

a. membership and subscription fees

b. contributions or donations by individuals, corporate groups and well- wishers,

c. funds raised through other activities or undertakings approved by SC

19.2 All funds of FIL shall be deposited in Bank accounts approved by SC and managed by The National Treasurer according to financial rules approved by SC.

19.3 Financial statements and Accounts of FIL shall be audited annually and reported on by a firm of Auditors appointed by SC.

19.4 The National Treasurer shall present audited reports to SC.

Article 20 Elections of FIL candidates

20.1 All members of FIL who meet national legal requirements shall be eligible to become candidates for various offices provided for in this Constitution.

20.2 The Chairman and Secretaries at each level shall be the automatic candidates for national and local government elections.

20.3 Elections of President, Vice President and Secretary General shall be by secret ballot, all other levels shall be conducted in a manner determined by the GA.

Article 21 Adoption and Amendment

21.1 Any amendments to this Constitution shall be made by Resolution supported by a simple majority vote of all members of the General Assembly.

21.2 A notice of intent to propose any amendment to the Constitution shall be forwarded to the Standing Committee at least 2 weeks before the General Assembly at least 2 weeks before the Standing Committee at which the motion for the amendment is intended to be moved.

Article 22 Term of Service

22.1 The term of service of elected members of all organs shall be five years.

22.2 The General Assembly shall determine the term limits for all offices.

Interim arrangements

1. The Interim President of FIL shall be elected by a simple majority of the founders at their first meeting.

2. The Interim Executive Committee shall be appointed by the President with the approval of the founders.

3. Notwithstanding the provisions of this Constitution, the Interim Executive Committee shall operationalise this Constitution by registering membership and convening a national conference.

4. The first National Conference will constitute itself into the first General Assembly of FIL which will among others;

a. adopt this constitution,

b. adopt a procedure of electing a President, Vice President and Secretary General,

c. elect a President, Vice President and Secretary General.

d. appoint a Standing Committee in accordance with Article 9.1 of this Constitution.

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY