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Mbale officials on the spot over irregular recruitment
Mbale District education offices in Malukhu Industrial City Division. District officials are under investigation over allegations of forgery, corruption and extortion, among others. PHOTO | YAHUDU KITUNZI
What you need to know:
- Benefits. According to the appointment letters, each teacher was supposed to get a salary of Shs499,684 per month from the date of assumption of duty.
The Inspector General of Government (IGG) is investigating top officials at Mbale District over allegations of extortion and issuing of forged appointment letters to applicants in last year’s recruitment of about 30 primary school teachers.
This comes after some of the applicants petitioned the IGG, calling for investigations into the alleged fraudulent award of jobs, forgery, corruption, bribery and abuse of office by some of the top officials in the district.
The Mbale IGG regional officer, Mr Siraje Sempagala, confirmed on Tuesday that they have commenced investigations.
“It is true, we have started our investigations into a number of issues raised in the teachers’ petition; including forgery, corruption and extortion, among others,” Mr Sempagala said.
Daily Monitor has learnt from sources at the district that officials from IGG Mbale regional office have since the start of this month pitched camp at district headquarters.
Some of the affected teachers interviewed by Daily Monitor, said they sat for interviews in June last year but they never succeeded.
“We are about 30 primary school teachers who sat for interviews in Mbale District last year but never succeeded. After some time, we were contacted by the district education office and told to ‘contribute’ Shs500,000 and they process for us appointment letters and posting, which we did and we were posted in various schools. We started teaching immediately and the district education officer (DEO) promised that we were going to access the payroll,” the teacher’s petition to the IGG dated January 11, 2021, which Daily Monitor has seen, reads in part.
The petition further reads: “After three months of teaching, the district got a new chief administrative officer (CAO), who invited us and we were told by the principal human resource officer that our appointments had fake minute numbers and, therefore, we should stop teaching. We went back to the DEO who served us the appointment letters but he instead sent us back to schools but he later sent letters to our head teachers to chase us.”
After that, the affected teachers petitioned to the IGG to investigate implicated officers for issuing invalid appointment letters.
The alleged appointment letters seen by Daily Monitor were signed by Mr Esau Ekachelan, the former Mbale CAO and copied to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Service; the Mbale Chief Finance Officer, the Mbale Principal Internal Auditor, and the secretary, Mbale District Service Commission.
“I am directed by the District Service Commission, Mbale, under its Min. No.6 (a) June 17/2020 that you have been offered an appointment on probation as education assistant II in the service of Mbale District Local Government,” the appointment letter reads.
The letter reads further: “The appointment is subject to the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, Public Service Standing Orders, regulations made thereunder the Public Service Act and Administrative Instructions issued from time to time”.
According to the appointment letters, each teacher was supposed to get a salary of Shs499,684 per month from the date of assumption of duty.
But another letter from Madaba and Associates dated January 12, addressed to the Mbale CAO, indicates that on June 30, 2020, the teachers were appointed on probation basis by the CAO through the district education office.
“That upon the appointment of these teachers, they were posted to various schools around Mbale District upon such terms and conditions, among which was that each primary teacher was to be receiving Shs499,684 per month as starting salary,” the letter reads in part.
The Mbale DEO, Mr Boaz Mayeku Kamuli, in his letter addressed to all head teachers of government primary school in Mbale District, dated November 9, 2020, stopped the said teachers from teaching.
“In the teachers’ meeting with the CAO on November 3, 2020, at Lukhobo Hall, the CAO told them to stop teaching because they had not been inducted and had not accessed payroll yet. That position still holds and should be implemented by head teachers of the affected schools,” the letter reads.
When contacted, Mr Kamuli declined to comment on the matter, but instead referred this reporter to Mbale CAO Loyce Joyce Nambozo.
Ms Nambozo said the matter was in court, and she could, therefore, not discuss it.
The former CAO, Mr Ekachelan, who allegedly signed on the appointment letters, also declined to discuss the matter. Mr Ekachelan is now the CAO of Pallisa District.
Sources privy to the investigations said the officials extorted about Shs500,000 from each of the applicants before offering them forged appointment letters.
Mr James Masaba, a lawyer with Madaba and Associates Advocates, said the matter of the aggrieved teachers is in Mbale Industrial Court.
“We filled the case at the Industrial Court and we tried to meet the district officials but they were not helpful,” Mr Masaba said on Tuesday.
