Bundibugyo staff recruitment exercise hit by bribery claims

Bundibugyo District leaders have accused the District Service Commission (DSC) of promoting corruption in the recently concluded recruitment exercise.

The district councillors said the DSC recruited more staff than the number of advertised positions in the exercise that ended last month.

A petition signed by 31 district councillors was on Tuesday handed over to the Chief Administrative Officer, the district speaker, the deputy RDC, and the district chairperson. The petitioners said they want the service commission investigated.

The petitioners said in June, the commission advertised 40 positions of education assistant officers but recruited 58.

Also, they claim that while two positions of assistant accountant were advertised, three people were recruited, and more people were recruited as askari [security guards] and medical personnel without advertising.

“Qualified candidates were unjustly excluded, with offers being extended to those that had failed the interviews amid extensive financial extortion, thereby compromising the meritocratic principles of the recruitment process,” the petition reads in part.

The district councillor representing workers, Mr Richard Mwesige, who is the lead petitioner, called for the establishment of a special committee to investigate the service commission, identify those responsible for the misconduct, and recommend appropriate actions.

“We are ready to seek legal redress in court if we don’t get a satisfactory resolution to these issues,” Mr Mwesige said.

Mr Etieen Muhumuza, the district speaker, said he has directed the clerk to the council and the office of the CAO to organise an extraordinary council meeting in which the matter will be deliberated on.

The district chairperson, Mr Robert Tibakunirwa, hailed the councillors for what he called a patriotic move to eradicate corruption in the district.

 “I have been hearing rumours of corruption within the service commission; that is why I went on the radio, calling for anyone with a clue about corruption tendencies regarding the recent recruitment to come and report in my office,” Mr Tibakunirwa said.

The deputy Resident District Commissioner, Umari Muhanguzi, said the alleged reported corruption issues will be investigated.

However, the district Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Charles Ouma, dismissed allegations of corruption in the DSC but instead said the petitioners had lobbied jobs for some of their supporters who failed interviews.

“Those people (councillors) had expectations, which they were pushing the commission to honour but of course, it was impossible because the applicants were close to 400 and we had only 58 positions, so there is no magic that could make all of them succeed,” Mr Ouma said.

He added: “There are also allegations that they are being aggrieved because they had picked money from some applicants promising to secure their jobs and can now not pay back the money, it is just a confused story, we are planning to have an extraordinary council meeting soon.”

When contacted on Tuesday, the DSC chairperson, Mr Patrick Mutegeki, declined to comment on the matter.

Mr Meshack Byomuntura from the Rwenzori Anti-corruption Coalition (RAC) said they have also received several reports from the public about alleged cases of corruption about the commission and they are carrying out their investigations.

“We are writing to the CAO for him to tell us why these irregularities happened, we shall follow up this matter to the logical conclusion,” he said.

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