120 teachers suspended over forged academic papers

By Charles Kakamwa

Namutumba district service commission is to terminate the services of 120 primary school teachers over forgery of academic papers.

The culprits were discovered during a verification exercise conducted by the district service commission chaired by Christopher Mutalya last month.

The district information officer, Saul Waigolo, said the teachers had transcripts that indicated they had obtained Grade III certificates, but the service commission was not convinced, prompting it to visit the said colleges for verification.

Waigolo said when a team visited the colleges, it was found out that some of the teachers had never studied there, while others had been admitted to study there, but never completed their courses.

He named the institutions that the team visited as Kaliro Teachers Training College, Jinja Teachers College Wanyange, Ggaba Teacher Training College and Kyambogo University.

He said the service commission would suspend the affected teachers as further investigations are carried out.

Waigolo said after all investigations have been concluded, a motion will be tabled in the district council and a resolution taken to relieve the teachers of their duties. Those with proper qualifications will be issued with appointment letters.

He said the verification exercise that kicked off with the education department will be carried out in other departments of the district to clean the payroll of unqualified staff.

In September, a team headed by the chief administrative officer, George William Wopuwa, carried out a similar verification exercise for all civil servants in Namutumba district.

Since its creation in 2005, most civil servants in Namutumba have been serving on the basis of appointment letters from Iganga, the mother district. Waigolo explained that this was inconveniencing senior civil servants who wished to retire.

“The staff who want to retire cannot access retirement letters from Namutumba district and we have to refer them to Iganga district, which is tiresome,” he said.