We do not pick money to give jobs: Arua City Service Commission refutes allegations of extortion from applicants

By Godwin Abedican

Arua

Arua city service commission has come out to deny allegations and rumors circulating that members of the commission are soliciting monies from unsuspecting applicants for job favors in the ongoing interviews for recruitments to fill vacant positions in the city.

The Commission, derives its mandate from Article 200 of the Constitution of Uganda (1995) as amended and section 55(1) to (8) of the Local Government Act, Cap. 243, with the powers to appoint persons to hold or act in any office in the service of a District or Urban council , including the Power to confirm appointments, exercise disciplinary control over persons holding or acting in such offices and to remove those persons from office is vested in the District Service Commission; the only exception  being the Chief Administrative Officers, Deputy Chief Administrative Officers, Town clerks and  Deputy Town Clerks of city and Municipalities who are, appointed by the Public Service Commission – however, Deputy Town Clerk of a municipality is appointed by the District Service Commission.

On 19th December 2022, Arua city placed adverts for 316 jobs with the deadline one month later on 19th of January 2023. During the one month period given for submission of applications by the commission, over 4,000 people are said to have applied for the 316 different positions advertised for.

This whole process was followed by shortlisting in which names of applicants successfully vetted were published on notice boards in the city for interviews and subsequently, the interviews commenced on 4th April 20203 and as the process of interviews are ongoing there are rumors against Arua city service commission on grounds that, they commission shortlisted people who paid monies, with others alleging that there was shortlisting of those who did not qualify and allegations that the commission shortlisted candidates for positions that they did not advertise.

In a press conference called on Tuesday 25th April 2023 by the commission to clarify on the rumors circulating, Ajio Knight the chairperson Arua city service commission denied the allegations warning that those mascaraing as members of the commission and extorting money will face the law. "After the shortlist was put up, we started getting a lot of talks from people. There has been some baseless allegations about City Service Commission. I call them unclassified information, filled with deceit and malicious propaganda to tarnish the image of Arua City Service Commission," she counted.

She says, since people are very desperate, some group of people are taking advantage of that. "People know how desperate our people are and as a result they are now taking money from these people. They are pretending to be members of the City Service Commission. We are sounding a very stand warning to people who are mudslinging us outside there. We are not happy of it. People are asking for money, people are asking for sex, that one we got the number, we even know the person. They ask for sex saying I will talk to these people and you will be given employment. Very ugly things are going around because of somebody wanting to get a job. Arua City Service Commission is not part of those things, we dissociate ourselves from that," Ajio angrily explained. According to Roy Anguyo, a member of the commission they work under oath which they are committed to as they do their work.

Drani S.K Johnson, another member of the commission explains that there are ill motives behind the fraud being alleged against the Commission as a way of breeding negative differences among the officials in the city which is not a good thing for a young city like Arua. "One thing that I have observed in this fraud star activity is, these are our true enemies because they want to tarnish our names and create enemity by picking money from people who may not even qualify and at the end of it when this candidate is not through because of our genuine assessment, then the end result is enemity" Drani said.
 
Margret Angujiru also a commission member with the service commission was bitter that many people have taken their activities with a negative heart. "We have not come here to collect money. We have rules that guide our work. If the commission was to be collecting money, how much would we have collected by now given the number of people we have interviewed?" She asked.

According to her some people have even reached to the extent of threatening their lives over the job they are doing. "We don't ask for money, but what we want is people who have qualified. Besides, we work as a team and not in isolation. A lot of people applied and we can’t recruit them all and yet people don’t understand this, we don’t need to hate each other over this, some people want to beat us, others want to kill us over the jobs. I appeal we should look in to the realities of this matter.

In an interview with some candidates who had turned up for the interviews they denied either having been asked to pay monies before shortlisting or before interviews.
Arua City Service Commission is led by Knight Ajio as the Chaiperson with Margaret Angujiru, Johnson S.K. Drani, Richard Anguyo Roy and Munib Ayuma as other members. The ongoing interviews by Arua city commission which started on April 4th 2023, are expected to end on 10th or 11th of May 2023.

COVER PHOTO: Arua City service Commison Members, (L-R), Margeret Angujiru , Johnson S.K. Drani , Knight Ajio-the Chaiperson (Center), Richard Anguyo Roy and Munib Ayuma (2) By Godwin Abedican