Interdicted Wakiso CAO queried over travel

By Alfred Wandera

KAMPALA - David Kigenyi Naluwayiro, the interdicted Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of Wakiso district, traveled to Denmark without seeking authorization from the ministry of local government, the ministry’s permanent secretary notes in a letter.

“You know that you left the country without my authorization which contravenes Section f-k (3) of the Public Service standing orders 2010 which provides a one-month advance notice of intention to travel for the responsible officer,” reads PS Patrick Mutabwire’s letter to Naluwayiro.

The letter is dated June 11 of this year.

Mutabwire interdicted Naluwayiro and other Wakiso district officials on June 11 after unearthing a ghost payroll with inflated employees’ salaries, some earning 10 times more that their dues pay.

The decision was made last week during an audit meeting with the officials at the ministry’s headquarters at Workers House in Kampala.

Naluwayiro is said to be in Denmark attending a conference on human rights and is due to return on June 24.

'Unacceptable'

Prior to the unearthing of the scandal, he had been transferred to Busia district in similar capacity and replaced with Iga Mukasa. However, according to sources at Wakiso district headquarters, Naluwayiro stayed put.

Other district officials that were interdicted include the head of human resources, Haruna Ssebi; human resources officer for teachers, Jonathan Kakooza, and his counterpart in charge of health and traditional service, Christine Nanyunja.

This came barely a year after President Yoweri Museveni declined to launch the sh1b youth livelihood fund in the district after learning that the money had not been transmitted to the beneficiaries’ accounts.

The PS accuses Naluwayiro of failure to follow directives to clean up the payroll after President Museveni complained of existence of ghost civil servants in the district’s payroll.

“You recall that in my circular letter date August 1, 2012, I directed following a directive from the President, to clean up the payroll. You also migrated to the new Integrated Personnel System (IPPS) which was to help clean up the system. It’s therefore unacceptable for you to have failed to clean up the payroll of the anomalies as expected,” the letter further reads.

Naluwayiro is further ordered to immediately hand over office to Mukasa, the incoming CAO, to enable him start the cleaning up of the payroll.

“In the meantime, your transfer to Busia district has been stayed until this matter is satisfactorily resolved,” adds Mutabwire’s letter.

In another letter dated June 11 to the new CAO, on the preliminary findings in Wakiso district Local Government salary payroll scandal, Mutabiwire directs the CAO to stop salary payments for June until the payroll is cleaned of all the anomalies.

The PS further directs that the new CAO interdicts all officers who have been involved in effecting salary payment to pave way for a forensic audit of the payroll.

“These officers include but not limited to: head of human resources, human resources officer in charge of education, human resources officer in charge of health and traditional staff, senior accountant in charge of salary and accounts assistants involved in salary payment and Information Technology officer,” the letter adds.

The PS also directs the CAO to ensure the removal of ghosts from the payroll, identify all staff who have been receiving overpay since July 2014 and ask them to refund it to the Government immediately, and to submit a comprehensive report on the action taken to the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Public Service.

Last week, Mutabwire explained that his investigation only looked at the salary of 30 district servants out of the 5,000 employees, saying that within the next one month, the ministry will have carried out a complete audit of the district payroll and cleaned it.

In a grilling session during the meeting in the ministry’s board room last week, it emerged that some prime school teachers and low-ranking district officials were earning more that the ministry directors and permanent secretaries.

Arafat Senyonga, an office attendant whose salary scale is U8 upper and whose monthly net pay is sh91, 050, confessed in the meeting that he has received sh2,122,240 for the last seven months inclusive of mileage allowance among other allowances that he failed to explain.

In other bizarre cases, Waki Midu, a stores assistant at the district who is entitled to sh235, 000 per month, admitted to have been paid sh2, 235, 587 monthly, whereas Faridah Nakitende, another office assistant who is entitled to a monthly salary of sh490, 000, has been paid shs4, 900, 000 monthly for the last seven months.

Another case unearthed was that of Fredrick Lukyamuzi, a head teacher who has been earning sh2, 300,000 and even had his salary reviewed upwards recently to sh3,250,000, instead of sh700, 000 per month.