BY MIKE RWOTHOMIO AND ALEX PITHUA
The Parliament account committee has raised a red flag on Zombo district leadership upon illegally effecting payment of Shs 6.1 Million to nine non-existing staff in the 2023/24 fiscal year.
The committee discovered the payment to the alleged nine ghost staff some of whom had retired and exited the District.
The report came when Zombo District officials were interfacing with Parliament accounts Committee, who were for an oversight visit in Arua city on August 16, 2024.
Sowedi Kitanywa, the Chairperson of the Parliament account committee and the MP for Busongora North County, queried how the District paid the funds to non-existing staff, plunging the government into a big financial loss.
“You continue to pay people when they had exited, it was noted that sh 6.1 million was paid to 9 staff who had retired and as you are aware, this resulted in financial loss, why did you pay people who had retired? ” Sowedi put Zombo District officials to task.
According to Zombo District local government, of the nine staff who benefited from the payment, some had retired whilst others were transferred to Nebbi Municipality, Mbale District local government, Yumbe District local government, Arua city.
Peter Mungacel, the human resource Officer of Zombo District acknowledged that indeed the payments were effected last year.
Mungacel told the committee that the transfer of these nine people happened when pay roll were already calculated , assuring the committee of all possible ways of recovering the money, though their effort is proving difficult.
“So at the cross-over period, sometimes the transfer happens at a time when the payroll is calculated and once the payroll is calculated for that particular month, it is not right for me to add or remove easily, secondly, salary payment files are uploaded from the ministry of Public service since November 2022, Salary files are uploaded for us directly,” Mungacel said in a lengthy statement.
He added that ” So I want to admit that because of that, sometimes it becomes difficult to intercept a certain record which has passed and uploaded but our effort is to recover the money from the beneficiaries”.
It’s not clear for which month the payment was affected.
How much recovered so far?
Mungacel told the committee
that ” We have so far recovered 1.7 million and recoveries is ongoing but of these nine people, not all had retired, some transferred service to other areas”
Of the nine staff, some were transferred to Nebbi Municipality, another staff to Arua City, another staff to Yumbe District local government, and another one to Mbale District local government Mungacel said.
Recovery challenges
Mungacel told the committee that they are facing challenges in recovering the monies, especially from staff transferred to far-off areas.
“The employees who crossed to other areas, we have had challenges with them but the one of Nebbi Municipality, we have recovered the money, we have evidence of the bank statement, we also have evidence of the debt we made from within Zombo” He noted
Case registered at Police
Due to difficulties in accessing some of the transferred staff, the District has notified accounting officers in their respective place of work and the case has been registered at Paidha central police station in a bid to recover the money said Mungacel.
“the employees who came to Arua city, Yumbe, Mbale, have made several efforts writing to them, also writing to the accounting officers of the areas where they are, after making those efforts and without result, we decided to register this matter to CID police in Paidha to help us. Since September 2023, the police has equally not helped us much” Mungacel stressed
This Publication can’t independently verify the claim since the police reference was not seen.
This Publication understands that the district’s last plan as guided by the current Chief Administrative Officer David Lubuka , is to have the human resource reach out physically to those entities to try to recover these monies.
All these happened at the time when the former Chief Administrative Officer Jacob Batemyeto was at the helm of the District administration.
Documents containing details of the payment were handed over to the committee for further scrutiny.
The committee were impressed by the District’s local revenue performance of over 90 per cent in the last financial year.
