Soroti teachers, Walimu Sacco in rift over salary deductions

Mr Paul George Agwau, the head teacher of Atiira Primary School in Serere District, said he took a loan of Shs1.5m in 2016, which he cleared in 2017 but to date Shs264,000 is still deducted from his salary.

“I have made several complaints, including giving evidence on how I cleared my loan, but it hurts me that the money is still being deducted,” he said.

Mr Agwau said those affected have petitioned the RDC, CAO and human resource personnel over the anomaly.
Mr Simon Aromait is also another victim.

Mr Benjamin Ebaju, the chairperson board of governors in Soroti Teacher’s Cooperative Savings and Credit Society Limited, said the deductions were being made by Walimu management in Kampala.

WaSU in an October 5 letter, indicated that the teachers and their respective Sacco bodies entered agreements, which direct that in the event that one beneficiary fails to fulfil his loan obligation, a fine of two percent would be enforced as recovery mechanism.

The Sacco says
Ms Carolyn Atai Kiyai, a loans manager at WaSU, said Soroti teachers Saccos subscribing to WaSU, took loans in 2016 of Shs200m, which they advanced to individual teachers, and the loan agreements are clearly stipulated in all engagements.

“These people took loans and refused to pay. We don’t want to be like Entadikwa, a youth fund which failed, we have to recover the money,” Ms Kiyai said.

She added that when they went to court over the matter, the Soroti teachers Sacco, which has subscribers as far as Serere, submitted names of people who took loans and defaulted. 

Ms Kiyai added that it is on that basis that deductions are made.
Mr Augustine Oluga, the manager of Soroti teachers’ Sacco, said Walimu created a number of primary teachers’ societies, and some teachers would borrow from different societies, which has caused the current mess.

He said of the 287 member societies, their national Saccos union, took 270 to court over failure to clear loans.

“We are not the ones deducting teachers’ salaries, it is WaSU,” Mr Oluga said, adding that it was not right to deduct the money without their consent.

Mr Oluga said several correspondences were being exchanged between Soroti teachers Sacco and Walimu on the payment of their loan balances , adding that in the process teachers who have had their salaries deducted will be refunded.

Mr Oluga said their national Sacco overstepped on their mandate in deducting the money, adding that an agreement has been reached to have the outstanding Shs79m paid in 36 months.

Mr Patrick Okumu, the RDC, said he had communicated to all the line departments to have the issue resolved.