Mitooma CAO, district officials arrested in job fraud case

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Detectives from the Criminal Investigation Directorate and State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) teams have arrested several top employees officials from Mitooma District on allegations of selling government jobs and extorting money from job applicants during recent and ongoing Local Government recruitment exercises.

SHACU in a public statement, named the detained suspects as: Joanita Nakityo - Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Sadic Mugisha - District Health Officer (DHO), Sam Karakuza Tugume - Chairperson of the District Service Commission  (DSC) and Richard Nabimanya - Senior Education Officer.

The statement dated Thursday, March 12, indicates that in the ongoing charges, possible corruption charges will soon to be levied upon the suspects.

SHACU alleges that Nakityo, "has repeatedly interfered with the functions of the DSC by taking over responsibilities such as scheduling interviews and selecting technical advisors for the commission. Additionally, she directly influenced the scoring of candidates by the Chairperson of the DSC, Tugume. It is alleged that Tugume extorted amounts ranging from sh7m to sh25m from 23 candidates, promising them jobs in the ongoing recruitment.” 

The statement links Mugisha to alleged influence peddling, " to ensure specific candidates were included and scored highly. He also leaked interview questions and answers to certain applicants to aid their preparations." 

Nabimanya is also accused of  "Influence peddling by contacting the Chairperson of the District Service Commission to secure favourable assessments for some education officers during interviews".

SHACU named Esther Owarimpa, Parish Chief and LC3 Councillor of Kashenshero Sub-County, Mitooma district as another suspect still at large.

Related cases:

In July last year, members of Gomba DSC and the Inspector of Schools were charged with extortion and soliciting bribes. In June last year, SHACU, working with the CID and Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecution (ODPP) launched a similar probe into extortion and soliciting for bribes by job applicants to the DSC of Mukono and Jinja.

Mariam Natasha, the SHACU Spokesperson, recently revealed that, the Unit is currently carrying out investigations into the sale of jobs by various DSC around the country, with the recent arrests being in Mpigi and Gomba. We are now in Mukono and Jinja districts. Last week in Mukono, we arrested the district service commission chairperson and his secretary over allegations of soliciting bribes. They are currently out on bond but we should be completing our investigations and take them to court soon. Our teams are also in Jinja,” she added.

Natasha noted that they had received several complaints from job applicants who had fallen victim to extortion allegations.

“There are those who got the jobs and they can’t complaint but most people did not. From the investigations, the members of the different district service commissions are asking for a lot of money. In Mukono and Jinja, the DSC members were allegedly asking between sh5m-sh40m, depending on the job,” she added.

He said most of those who had paid had presented evidence which included payment slips and WhatsApp messages, among others.

What is the DSC?

DSC is responsible for the appointment, promotion, disciplining and removal from office of all employees other than the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Deputy CAO, Town Clerk and Deputy Town Clerk of a City and Town Clerks (TCs) of Municipalities who are appointed by the central government.

In Uganda, DSCs are appointed by the Public Service Commission. While the District Chairperson nominates candidates, the Public Service Commission makes the final appointments.