Kira Municipality officials interrogated regarding mishandling of payroll.

Officials from Kira Municipality in Wakiso District were questioned by the Public Accounts Committee (Local Government) regarding mishandling of the payroll, resulting in both underpayment and overpayment of staff salaries and pension. This was disclosed in the Auditor General's Report for the Financial Year 2021-2022, which also highlighted the existence of ghost workers receiving pension for several years. The report identified an individual who, using forged documents from the Education Service Commission, received over Shs7 million in the reviewed year and has been on pension for the past seven years. This raised concerns among committee members who pressed the municipality officials to account for this individual. "When staff are assigned to your municipality, do you conduct verification or simply accept whoever is sent to you? How far have you progressed with this case?" inquired committee chairperson Hon. Gilbert Olanya. Hon. Patrick Isingoma from Hoima East Division demanded that legal action be taken against the individual to set an example and prevent future similar incidents. "It is a recurring issue; you report such cases but never follow up. You should pursue this case to prevent more occurrences, or you could face an influx of such cases," Isingoma emphasized. The report also highlighted Shs49 million paid to 10 secondary school employees not listed in the Education Service Commission's database. "These employees were not in the database and had been on the payroll for an average of 3.5 years," the report stated. Kira Municipality’s Deputy Town Clerk, Paddy Kakumba, clarified that the mentioned employees hadn't undergone commission verification at the time of the audit. He added that subsequent verification results cleared the 10 employees of any wrongdoing. Geoffrey Muwanga, the municipality's Head of Finance, pledged, "Previously, we didn't cross-check; we relied on the Commission's decisions. Moving forward, we will verify before adding new staff to the payroll." Legislators also raised concerns about delays in incorporating newly recruited staff onto the payroll, leading to underpayment totaling Shs3.1 million. Coupled with the delayed removal of retired or transferred staff from the payroll, MPs criticized the officials for negligence. "Why continue spending public funds on individuals no longer in service?" questioned Olanya, who demanded evidence of the municipality's efforts to recover Shs4 million paid to retired staff. Lira District Woman MP, Linda Auma, admonished the officials, saying, "You're acting as if this is your first audit. We need proof of fund recovery and a repayment schedule." The Auditor General's report additionally faulted the municipality for Shs155 million noted as underpayment regarding pension and gratuity, prompting MPs to call for compensation.