By Frank Kamuntu
Parliament’s Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises – COSASE has directed the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) to detail its plans to recover salaries paid to six staff members who were simultaneously receiving salaries from other government agencies. MPs have raised concerns about potential connivance within the government, suspecting these staff members might be sharing their illicit gains with top officials.
This directive follows a request from Allan Mayanja (Nakaseke Central) for UBOS officials to address a query from the December 2023 Auditor General’s report. The report questioned why UBOS maintained these six staff members on their payroll despite the legal prohibition against drawing two salaries from the consolidated fund.
“It was noted that six UBOS staff members were also employed in other government agencies, drawing multiple salaries. Can you explain this?” Mayanja asked.
Aliziki Kaudha, Director of Economic Statistics at UBOS, stated that UBOS was unaware of the double salaries until the Auditor General’s findings were revealed. Following the discovery, the staff members were removed from the Bureau’s payroll.
“We noted this issue. It was a wake-up call. Most of these staff were on short-term projects. Due diligence has primarily been done for permanent staff, and we only had one permanent staff member among them. We didn’t know he was employed elsewhere. After verification, all the staff were removed from the payroll,” Kaudha explained.
However, Isiah Ssasaga (Budadiri East) questioned whether UBOS had made efforts to recover the funds from these staff members. “Do such staff walk free? Are there measures to recover such monies?” Ssasaga asked.
Kaudha responded that the individuals were not free, as they were removed from the payroll and subjected to a disciplinary committee. However, she noted that the recovery of funds was left to the Auditors.
“Of course they don’t walk free. We made sure they don’t draw another salary from UBOS. The disciplinary committee handled the matter because there are procedures to follow,” Kaudha said.
Mayanja, who is also the Vice Chairperson of COSASE, pressed Kaudha on whether any recoveries had been made. Kaudha replied, “We didn’t recover the money. The staff were deleted from the payroll, and recovery would go to the consolidated fund. We are waiting for the Central Government to follow the necessary process.”
Robert Kasolo (Iki Iki County) rejected UBOS’s response, questioning why the Auditor General should handle the recovery when UBOS paid the salaries illegally.
“The money was from the Bureau. You should ensure its recovery, not just delete the staff from the payroll. This recurrent issue happens in Ministries and Departments,” Kasolo stated.
Ssasaga supported Kasolo, highlighting that such double payment schemes are widespread in both Central and Local Government, with top officials potentially sharing the proceeds.
“This is a growing vice. Many agencies knowingly maintain staff with multiple jobs, sharing the proceeds in the background. They claim to discover this only during audits, but could that be true?” Ssasaga questioned.
The Auditor General’s report also highlighted that 96 employees with expired contracts received UGX 91 million. These employees were removed from the payroll after consultation with the Accounting Officer.
The Committee further scrutinized UBOS’s payroll integrity, noting inconsistencies in birth dates of 30 employees between the main payroll and data captured by NIRA. These inconsistencies undermine the Bureau’s record integrity and complicate retirement procedures.
Kaudha admitted the discrepancies, stating that the verification exercise revealed some staff information discrepancies. She explained that moving forward, UBOS requires all staff to produce their national IDs at the time of employment to ensure data accuracy.
“So, it was a wake-up call for validation. We need to align the information. We have updated our staff files and now require national IDs at employment start,” Kaudha said.
According to UBOS’s staffing structure, out of 401 approved positions, 341 (85%) are filled, leaving 60 (15%) vacancies. Between 2019 and 2023, UBOS spent UGX 87.853 billion on wages, despite receiving UGX 91.219 billion in budgeted wage funds, leaving unspent balances of UGX 3.367 billion.
In February 2023, the Auditor General conducted a national verification of the government payroll, recommending the recovery oUGX 53 billion from 10,192 ‘ghost workers’ drawing salaries from various government bodies, including deceased, retired, or absconded employees. The special audit covered 367 entities, including 162 MDAs, 179 Local Governments, and 29 other government organizations, spanning from 2019/2020 to 2022/23.
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