Who is behind the ghosts on the payroll?
Oct 29, 2011
INVESTIGATIONS by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) have revealed a racket of workers in the public service ministry, who have allegedly been involved in falsification of the Government payroll.
By Conan Businge
INVESTIGATIONS by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) have revealed a racket of workers in the public service ministry, who have allegedly been involved in falsification of the Government payroll.
The investigations have shown that, “intentional falsification of the payroll creating ghost teachers and other civil servants has caused imbalances and substantial loss of revenue by the Government.”
The IGG’s report says officials in the public service, responsible for entering data, validating cases to access the payroll and those that edit, at times connive with the overall supervisor of Computer Room Unit to create ghost teachers.
The investigations on ghost teachers in secondary schools by the IGG’s office, were done in Mayuge district early this year.
“This put their integrity and honesty in performing their specified duties to question,” reads a letter dated September 13, to the public service’s permanent secretary.
The IGG probe followed complaints that some names appeared on the payroll of March and April 2009, without any submission to the public service.
Some names had a code for Wakiso district, meaning they were unknown to Mayuge district. But it was discovered that the names were old cases, which had fraudulently been put on the payroll of Wakiso district in 2008.
“They were ghost teachers who were maintained and paid salary for some months and then removed from the payroll. But their codes remained in the system to be used to access new ghost cases.”
According to the IGG’s findings, “Documents used to access their payrolls could not be produced,” The old computer numbers of the deleted cases in Wakiso district were maintained in the system and used to put new names to the payrolls of other districts, without Pay-Change reports forms and other necessary statements.”
The latest investigations also show that, “cases were also maintained on the payroll for some months and then deleted, after being paid salary as teachers.”
The IGG recommends that three officials from the payroll management and monitoring unit of the public service should be moved.
“They should be deployed elsewhere since they have failed to manage the unit or sections where they are currently deployed,” reads the letter.
The personnel officer, Jonathan Kakooza, IGG says, should be submitted to Wakiso District Service Commission for appropriate disciplinary action.
He accuses him of acting irresponsibly to allow fraudulent names to be included on the district service list of December 2008.
When the state minister for public service, Szezi Mbaguta was asked about the letter and recommendation from the IGG, she said she was not aware of it.
The report shows that when some of the teachers were tracked down and interviewed, they admitted having received the money through their bank accounts.
“They said when they found the money in their accounts, they withdrew and used it thinking that it was part of their salary, which was being paid to them by their private schools they were teaching in,” reads the report.
It adds that others disclosed that they were contacted by their friends and relatives who requested to give them their bank accounts for personal transactions.
“As soon as the money was wired to unknown teachers’ accounts, it was passed on to those relatives and friends, who claimed that it was their money. They said they never bothered to pick and check the bank statements to find out the source of the money,” adds the report.
Within just one month of February, the report shows that sh14m was lost in salaries in Mayuge alone. Payment to one staff member alone amounts to about sh13m.
Allegations of ghost teachers and pupils have been rife in the education ministry. But the biggest issue is that the real concerned officers in the local governments and public service ministry are never penalised when such cases come up.
For cases of ghosts in primary schools, it is the relevant Chief Administrative Officers (CAO), who should carry out the penalties. All teachers who functionally gain access to the Government payroll do so, on the express authorisation of the CAO of the relevant district.
The CAO prepares the pay change reports, which are then submitted to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Public Service. The permanent secretary of the public service authorises and effects payment of all primary teachers through ‘Straight Through Process.’
All matters of payment, promotion and discipline are handled by the CAO and submitted to the District Service Commission for appropriate action.
This aggravates the already increasing reports from the districts that there are ghost pupils, schools and teachers who have been created by some elements in the local governments.
The IGG’s report comes at a time when other reports from Bundibugyo show that about 12,273 ghost pupils and 107 UPE ghost schools had b