The administrators of the Kalungu district are under scrutiny to explain how a “ghost teacher” has been collecting a salary for the previous sixteen years while not really working in the area.
Prosy Nalumansi, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), has been instructed by the Public Accounts Committee on Local Governments in Parliament to produce a thorough report on this inconsistency, which was discovered in the report that the Auditor General prepared for the year 2022.
This anomaly was discovered in the report that the Auditor General prepared.
In his audit report, Auditor General John F. Muwanga discovered that the municipality has a ghost employee who has been taking a salary using fraudulent appointment data for the past sixteen years.
As a result, the municipality has experienced a loss of funds as a result of this situation.
An individual by the name of Ssaaka Lukyamuzi, who was allegedly working as a teacher at Kyagambiddwa Secondary School in the Lwabenge sub-county, has been collecting an annual payment of 7.48 million Shillings, as stated by the audit report.
On the other hand, Lukyamuzi has been using an appointment minute that is identical to the one that Buruno Sserunkuma, a member of staff at another institution, has been using.
During the meeting that is currently taking place in Masaka city, the Committee on Public Accounts for Local Government, which is led by its Vice Chairperson Paul Lutamaguzi Ssemakula, the Member of Parliament for Nakaseke South, has instructed the leadership of the Kalungu district to provide specific information regarding how this ghost teacher has evaded detection by the district’s internal systems.
The committee held the Chief Administrative Officer, the Human Resource Officer, and the District Chief Financial Officers liable for failing to take clear actions to recover the misappropriated monies and capture individuals participating in the conspiracy, as was advised by the Auditor General.
The committee also held the Chief Financial Officer responsible for failing to make clear efforts to recover the misappropriated funds.
In spite of Nalumansi’s attempts to distance herself from the irregularity by claiming that she was recently transferred to Kalungu as the Chief Administrative Officer, the Committee did not buy her excuses and gave her one week to provide information about the anomaly as well as a plan to recover the fraudulently paid funds.
Nalumansi’s attempt to distance herself from the irregularity by claiming that she was recently transferred to Kalungu as the Chief Administrative Officer was rejected by the Committee.
Additionally, the audit report discloses that the district sustained a financial loss of 5.46 million Shillings as a result of salary overpayments made to twenty members of staff who were paid based on the incorrect wage scales.
It was also noted that in 2023, the district made unreasonable loan deductions totalling 12.98 million Shillings from eight employees. These employees had already satisfied all of their loan obligations with various financial institutions before the deductions were made.
In addition, during the same time period, the Accounting Officer did not sanction payroll deductions that totalled 6.29 million Shillings from 23 employees who had salary loans.
These deductions would have been taken from their salaries. According to the Auditor General’s findings, such inconsistencies can oftentimes function as planned loopholes for the theft of monies.
In the meantime, the Committee has given the Accounting Officer for the district of Kalungu instructions to provide a detailed report within one week that responds to all audit queries and provides a legitimate asset registry for the district.
According to Luttamaguzi, there may be purposeful attempts by certain technical officers to misappropriate public funds by utilizing transfers of accounting officials as a cover. This is something that could be happening.
The committee is contemplating recalling some members of the staff so that they can respond to questions regarding accountability that have been sent in from their prior duty sites.