Parliament adopted the recommendation in the report by the Public Accounts Committee (Local Government) calling for an investigation into how officials at the Ministry of Education presided over the payment of 631 ghost teachers in 129 Local Governments (LGs), leading to the loss of over UGX19bn.
This was after Gilbert Olanya (Kilak South), who also doubles as Chairperson PAC-Local Government informed Parliament that the Government lost UGX19.026bn due to payment of salaries to ineligible individuals in 129 LGs, a scheme that was unearthed after the Auditor General reviewed a file of teachers from the Education Service Commission, that revealed that a number of teachers in secondary schools and tertiary institutions used forged minutes to access government payroll. He explained,
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The Committee observed that between November 2021 and June 2022 the ESC undertook a countrywide validation exercise and established that 631 teachers had forged documents (Appointment letters and Posting Instructions) and the matter had been referred to the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (CID) for further management. The funds lost as a result of this fraudulent act had not been recovered.
Olanya informed Parliament that the said individuals had been on the payroll for a period between 1 to 39 years with some approaching the retirement, and cited examples like Kakumiro District, where 10 staff had been paid UGX74,381,395, for over three years while in Agago District, 6 staff had been paid UGX5,5,676,794. While announcing the Committee’s decision on the matter, Olanya remarked,
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (CID) should expedite the process with a view of prosecuting the culprits and recovery of lost funds, and report back to Parliament within three months from the time of adoption of this report. The Directorate [should] also carry out an investigation in the Ministry of Education and Sports, to establish how these staff get these posting institutions.
Olanya told Parliament that when accounting officers from 36 district local governments, 3 cities, 2 divisions and 7 Municipal Councils where probed over this matter in the Committee, most of them denied any wrong doing arguing that the issue of ineligible secondary school and tertiary institutions’ employees was beyond them since the appointment and posting is done by Ministry of Education, and as soon as the matter was raised by the Auditor General, most of the cases had been referred to the Police for further investigation.
He however observed that many teachers got deployed using forged posting instructions and whereas there was proof that the matter was reported to police, no action had been taken and there was no report, and called on Ministry of Education to write letters to the district with a list of teachers posted in every posting they make.
MPs react to reports of ghost teachers
Albert Lokuru (Tepeth County) while reacting to the report findings asked, “The issue of ghost staff at the Ministry of Education. Where is the source of ghost staff? What has the Ministry of Education been doing about this? This…is… a big problem, we are spending money on ghost staff.”
Reuben Arinaitwe (Isingiro West) backed the recommendation to probe officials at the Ministry of Education. He said,
When you [investigate] the report, they spent UGX19Bn in 129 Local Governments, that is a lot of money. This is a cartel that starts from the Ministry Head Quarters down and I think that is why Police is compromised somehow, that is why we need this Parliament to be serious and we [investigate] this matter.
Norah Bigirwa (Buliisa DWR) wondered why it took long for the team of auditors in Kampala to discover this scheme, yet these districts have internal auditors.
It is a very big challenge in most of our Local Governments that we are having many of the staff in Local Governments on the payroll when they aren’t eligible to be there and getting a salary which isn’t due to them. I think there is a problem, and we have internal auditors in all these districts, I just want to understand the function of all these internal auditors in the local governments, what do they do? She said
When Speaker Among inquired how the Chief Administrative Officers couldn’t have realized the presence of ghost teachers in their respective districts being their direct supervisors, the Minister of Local Government, Raphael Magyezi replied saying that the 631 teachers recruited without legal documents isn’t within the mandate of the CAOs, but rather the duty of Education Service Commission that is in charge of recruitments.
