Districts Hold Teachers’ Salaries

Dec 22, 2002

Consultants hired by the Education Ministry to do a tracking study of teacher recruitment, deployment and payroll management has discovered that districts retain millions of shillings in the teachers’ salary accounts for unclear reasons.

Over sh100m remained on the salary account of Apac, and sh133m on the Sironko one

By John Eremu

Consultants hired by the Education Ministry to do a tracking study of teacher recruitment, deployment and payroll management has discovered that districts retain millions of shillings in the teachers’ salary accounts for unclear reasons.
The damning report presented at this year’s education sector review conference in Kampala also discovered that up to 40,000 primary school teachers were irregularly appointed.
International Development Consultants (IDC) said in the report that both district authorities and school headteachers kept no records of salary payments and any balances were diverted.
They said there were no records to prove that the huge balances retained in the salary accounts were returned to the treasury at the end of the financial year as required by law.
“There was no salary record at any school as per regulations. No signed payment vouchers. Balances of salaries were retained or diverted to other uses.
“In fact huge balances existed on salary accounts of districts. For instance, over sh100m remained in the salary account for Apac district in March 2002 and sh133m in Sironko for January 2002” said the report presented by the lead consultant Prof. Sam Turyamuhika.
The consultants recommended a crash book-keeping programme for all headteachers currently in service. They also recommended that an accounting qualification like Part One ACCA (Association of Certified Chartered Accounts) is made a must for recruitment of headteachers effectively January 2006.
IDC further suggested that beginning with the next intake, bookkeeping is made a compulsory course in all Teacher Training Institutions and separately certified.
They also asked government to develop and print standard Uganda Schools Books of Accounts which should be distributed to all headteachers by July next year.
The consultants said of the 40,000 irregularly appointed teachers, 33,500 had already accessed the payroll.
The report also said 4% of all teachers were being overpaid, Iganga being the worst offender with up to 7.5% of the teachers earning above their entitlements.
A total of 36% of the 118,000 teachers reported underpayments with masindi, Kampala, Iganga and Apac on the worst offender’s list the report said.
The consultants recommended sanctions against schools and district officials who do not pay teachers on time. Teachers are supposed to be paid by the 28th of every month. Ends

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