Sembabule district education sectoral committee has unearthed 450 ghost teachers on the payroll. The ghost teacher scam was unearthed by a team led by Dr. Ely Muhumuza, Sembabule LC V chairman, Charles Nsubuga Kiberu, Chief Administrative Officer and district Education Officer Sulaiti Sserunjogi. Dr. Ely Muhumuza, Sembabule LC V chairman told the district council early this week, that their investigations revealed 130 none existent teachers in schools in Lwemiyaga, Ntuusi, Lwebitakuli, Mateete sub counties and Sembabule town council.
He says that 189 unqualified teachers were found in secondary schools, 231 teachers in primary schools and 30 in technical schools. He says that teachers could neither produce their Uganda Certificate of Education certificate nor teacher’s certificate. Sulaiti Sserunjogi, Sembabule District Education Officer says that they were forced to embark on the investigations because of the declining educational performance.
He says that he become suspicious when only a handful of teachers presented their academic papers as requested by the district education sector committee. Charles Nsubuga Kiberu, Sembabule Chief Administrative Officer says that the district has been losing 112.5 million shilling each months on the salaries of the ghost teachers.
He says that there are 975 teachers of the district pay roll but only a few of them are active. Kiberu says that following their investigations they have scrapped off the ghost teachers and hope to recruit 500 qualified teachers for deployment. Johnston Kamugisha, the Lwemiyaga County LC V councilor blames the problem of Ghost teachers and unqualified teachers on the reluctance of members of the district service commission.
He says that most of the technical officers in Sembabule are serving in acting capacity which enables wrong people to penetrate the system. Kamugisha alleges that he received information that some unqualified people were paying shillings 100,000 to the acting CAO to access the pay roll. The former Sembabule CAO Robert Twesigye, died in 2010 but no substantive CAO was appointed to replace him.
