DELETED! Over 7,500 Government Employees Removed from Public Service Payroll

Uganda’s Ministry of Public Service says it has deleted a little over 7,500 government employees or public servants from its payroll. But, a top official at the same ministry has made it clear, that will not be all: some will be investigated by the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) of the Uganda Police Force (UPF).

Last year, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) carried out a head count for all civil servants in government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), all local government, health centres, universities and tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools, statutory authorities and government owned corporations so as to remove ghost staff and illegal employees who had been costing taxpayers billions.

In April 2023, the Auditor General detailed the overall objective as being the establishment issues affecting the credibility and efficiency of the government of Uganda wage, pension and gratuity management processes, and the need to make recommendations to deal with these challenges.

Then, the office of the auditor general noted that in the FY2022-2023, mismanagement of payrolls had cost government Shs80bn, with at least 795 civil servants who had retired, transferred, absconded or died had been paid up to Shs1bn. (See related reporting Here).

Now, the Ministry of Public Service says it has acted on the Auditor General’s validation report. Public service has ordered different MDAs, local government, health centres, universities and tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools, statutory authorities and government owned corporations to implement specific recommendations for their respective entities as guided by the Auditor General in his report on the special payroll audit and validation of public officers and Pensioners by Auditor General.

“Following the special audit of the payroll and validation exercise by the Auditor General, Responsible Officers have been directed to implement the Audit recommendations. A number of Institutions have to date not fully implemented the Audit recommendation,” said junior public service minister Mary Grace Mugasa.

As a ministry, public service, says it has, based on the recommendation of the Auditor General, conducted further validation of officers recommended for second round validation exercise. The public service ministry says it has validated nearly 34,500 government employees and is currently examining findings from the validation exercise.

Thousands have been removed from the payroll while a few others have been put back on the same government payroll.

“The exercise was concluded and a total of 34,471 Public Officers were validated. Analysis of the validation is being undertaken,” said Minister Mugasa. “The Ministry of Public Service deleted from March 2024 payroll 7,586 records on the recommendation of the Auditor General. To date over 1,500 have been cleared and restored on the payroll.”

The minister also revealed that “further action will be taken on cases not cleared either by the verification team or the responsible officers.” Catherine Bitarakwate Musingwiire, the Permanent Secretary (Accounting Officer) of the Ministry of Public Service, has made it clear that the over 7,500 government employees who have been deleted from the payroll “arising from illegal presence are going to be handed over to CID.”

Meanwhile, government has increased salaries of police and prison officers starting this month of July 2024. Also increased are salaries of UPDF officers. (See Details Here and There).

You can see the list of Uganda’s 25 most highly paid government employees and most paid officials in the judiciary Here and There.

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