There are 290 non-existent teachers on the Sembabule payroll. Senior district officials have been ordered to account for this anomaly.
The Sembabule Resident District Commissioner, Seruwano Kabogorwa, revealed the existence of the ghost teachers. He says the acting Chief Administrative Officer, the Personnel Officer in charge of Salaries and the District Education Officer must be held responsible for the apparent fraud.
The accused officials are, Sarah Nakarungi, the acting Sembabule Chief administrative officer, Josephine Nakato the Personnel officer in charge of salaries, and Gertrude Nakabira, the Sembabule district education officer. In a report presented to the District Council, Seruwano says the three officials placed the ghost teachers and allocated salaries to them. He says that in some schools, two head teachers – real and non-existent – are listed, costing the district millions of shillings.
The schools with two head teachers on the payroll are Kakoma Primary School, Kyakayega Primary School, Kisindi Primary School, Kinyansi Primary School, and Nakatere Primary School and Kyaluwanya Primary School.
The RDC wants the police and the Ministry of Education to investigate the matter and to bring the responsible district officials to book.
The Sembabule LC5 chairman, Herman Sentongo, says he is shocked by the report. He says he was unaware of the anomaly on the education department's payroll.
The implicated district officials are not going down without a fight.
Josephine Nakato, the Personnel Officer and Gertrude Nakabira, the District Education Officer, call the RDC's report a fabrication.
Gertude Nakabira says the RDC never contacted her office when he was compiling his figures. She says that if he had done so he would have made an accurate head count of all teachers in Sembabule, which would prove her innocence in the matter.
//Cue in: " I tried to..." Cue out: "... in Sembabule."// Recently the Inspectorate of Government recommended the demotion of the Sembabule District Education Officer, Gertrude Nakabira, for incompetence. It accused her of causing government a loss of 20million shillings for wrongfully suspending the former headmaster of Kikoma Primary School, Charles Kiyimba.
The Sembabule District Service Commission declined to implement the recommendation.
