IGG probes irregular staff recruitment in Butaleja

The Inspectorate of Government (IG) is investigating the alleged irregular job recruitment of civil servants in Butaleja District.

In an interview with the Monitor at the weekend, the IG spokesperson, Ms Munira Ali, said the investigation followed numerous complaints made by the public about some officials from the District Service Commission (DSC) and other civil servants, who solicit bribes from applicants.

 “We received the complaints, reviewed them and investigations have started,” Ms Munira said.

However, the Butaleja Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Ben Lawrence Marley, and an official from the DSC, who asked not to be named to speak freely, said the allegations were not true.

The DSC official said some people are determined to tarnish the image of the commission.

“We only received that unfortunate incident about a nurse attached to Busolwe General Hospital who went missing after not being shortlisted. Some politicians and middlemen receive money using our names,” the official said.

On March 6, the DSC advertised 33 vacancies. These included assistant nursing officer, clinical officer, principal human resource officer, principal engineer, senior community development officer, district health officer, district education officer, health inspector, medical lab technician, and inspector of schools, among others.

However, locals and some applicants claim the exercise was marred by irregularities and called for investigations into what they called a “fraudulent recruitment exercise”. 

This prompted five concerned citizens led by Mr James Wire, the chairperson of the Board of Busolwe General Hospital, to petition the Inspector General of Government (IGG) seeking the Ombudsman’s intervention in the matter.

Other petitioners include Mr Moses Lyada, Mr Anselm Wabwire, Mr Ronnie Muyangu and Mr Higenyi Kemba.

“As far back as 2006, there have been cases of individuals being unfairly denied appointments on various unprofessional grounds like money, religion, family affiliations among others. This is always being affirmed through the actions undertaken by various individuals within DSC,” the July 3 petition reads in part.

According to the petition, the district failed to recruit applicants on the basis of competence and instead favoured political friends.

It added that it also failed to address the grievances of the applicants and that there was no transparency in the exercise.

The petitioners also asked for a thorough background check on the district staff to weed out nonexistent staff from the payroll.

“We request for a review of the staff on the DSC to determine their suitability for the positions held,” the petition reads.

Mr Marley said the allegations of corruption in the DSC were not true .

“When the advert was made the turn up was overwhelming. For instance, for teachers, we wanted 84 teachers but we received over 800 applicants. We wanted eight enrolled nurses but we received over 500 applicants,” he said.

“I don’t know the criteria the service commission used to reduce the number of applicants to shortlist,” he added.

 Mr Marley said people are complaining because they were inconvenienced by not being shortlisted.

“But if there is anyone with evidence about bribery, let them bring it to my office for action. We don’t want corruption in delivery,” he said.

In an interview with Daily Monitor at the weekend, Mr Wire said there are glaring loopholes on how recruitment and promotions are handled in the district as well as the denial of opportunity to qualified personnel through making cronies act in undeserving positions for lengthy periods.

“We have received numerous complaints from people who were asked to pay money while applying for jobs, but they ended up not appearing on the shortlist,” he said.

Mr Lyadda called for the identification and withdrawal of all unqualified district staff.

“We demand that within two weeks, your office ensures that the process to address these matters commences without fail. Any further delays will lead us to undertake action at a much higher level,” Mr Lyadda said in an interview on Friday.

He added that some district officials have exhibited the highest degree of abuse of office and misconduct by soliciting bribes from job applicants.

Mr Wabwire said: “We have petitioned the office of RDC but if she fails to take action we shall petition other higher offices in Kampala.”

Mr Fredrick Were, a resident of Butaleja, said the district was carved out of Tororo in 2005 to create more jobs for the people but unfortunately, government jobs are being taken by the highest bidder.

A job seeker, who spoke to Daily Monitor on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said: “When I applied for the post of Parish Chief, I was asked to pay Shs6 million but I managed to negotiate and paid Shs2 million.  I sold two acres of land to raise the money but I was not shortlisted.” 

She added, “Later, I was approached by an official from the district headquarters who asked for sex from me so that I can get a job but I refused and gave up on Butaleja jobs.”

A senior police officer at Butaleja Central Police Station, who requested not to be named, said they have received reports of district officials sleeping with female job applicants in exchange for jobs.

Reaction

Efforts to get a comment from Butaleja District LC5 chairperson, Mr Michael Higenyi, were futile as his known mobile phone couldn’t go through by press time.

Mr Steven Masiga, a researcher on local governments, said the government is overloading districts by giving DSCs authority to recruit staff.

“Many DSC have failed to follow public service regulations on recruitment, particularly putting emphasis on merit and that is the cause of problems,” he said.

Background

Since 2012, Butaleja District local government has suffered a series of scandals from misappropriation of funds to irregular recruitment of staff and shoddy work done on government projects which has partly hindered its developments compared to other districts that started at the same time.

For instance, last year, the IGG told Daily Monitor that they were investigating about 16 cases of corruption in the district.

The cases included alleged division of funds meant for gravelling roads in Busolwe Town Council, mismanagement and embezzlement of government funds in Naweyo Sub-county and mismanagement of resources.

Other cases are alleged injustices in the recruitment system, misappropriation of funds by the senior assistant secretary of Busaba Sub-county and recruitment of 13 parish chiefs, who were not cleared by the Public Service.

Early this year, the Ombudsman said DSCs operate behind a shroud of corruption.

The Inspector General of Government added that Butaleja and Tororo had the highest number of corruption-related cases such as bribery, nepotism, and recruitment of staff without job requirements.

Others are Namisindwa, Bududa, Busia and Manafwa.

 Last Month, the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) deputy director general said almost 90 percent of DSCs are corrupt.

Lt Col Emmy Katabazi said the officials in DSCs extort money from job seekers, adding that ISO has been tasked to ensure such vices are wiped out.

The IGG registered 225 cases related to abuse of office at Local Government level between January 2020 and December 2022.