PAC SCRUTINIZES ZOMBO DISTRICT LEADERS FOR PAYING GHOST STAFF

Zombo District officials appearing before Parliament account committee in Arua city on August 16, 2024.
 
By Mike Rwothomio 
 
Zombo
 
The Parliament Account Committee (PAC) has raised a red flag on Zombo district leadership over illegally effecting payment of Shs 6.1 Million to nine non-existing staff in the 2023/24 fiscal year.
 
The committee discovered that 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 PAC, who were for an oversight visit in Arua city on August 16, 2024.
 
Sowedi Kitanywa, the Chairperson of the committee who doubles as the MP for Busongora North County, queried how the District paid the funds to non-existing staff, plunging the government into a financial loss.
 
"You continue to pay people when they had exited, it was noted that shs 6.1 million was paid to 9 staff who had retired and as you are aware, this resulted into financial loss, why did you pay people that 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 while others were transferred to Nebbi Municipality, Mbale, Yumbe and Arua city.
 
 
Peter Mungacel, the human resource Officer Zombo District acknowledged that indeed the payment 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 a 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 effected.
 
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 actually retired, some transferred service to other areas" 
 
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, we 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
 
Radio Pacis can't independently verify the claim since the police reference was not seen.
 
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 happen at the time when the former Chief Administrative Officer Jacob Batemyeto was at the helm of the District administration.
 
Documents containing detail of the payment was handed over to the committee for further scrutiny. The committee members were impressed by the District local revenue performance of over 90 percent in the last financial year.