Up to 200 teachers recruited in the financial year 2014/15 in Rakai District could lose their jobs following the Inspector General of Government (IGG) disapproval of the process through which they were recruited by the district service commission (DSC).

“The teachers deemed to have been recruited under suspicious conditions shall be interdicted and subjected to fresh interviews by the recently elected District Service Committee,” Ms Ali Munira, the IGG spokesperson, said.

The irregular recruitment of the teachers was unearthed by the office of the IGG which immediately disbanded the DSC comprising Mr Charles Zimaze (chairperson), Alex Mazinga ( secretary) and Jamir Kabiito (principal human resource officer). Others are Eva Ssanyu Kakembo and Denis Ssebuggwawo who were both members to the committee.

According to the IGG report released last month, a total of 709 Primary School teachers (Grade III) were shortlisted out of 724 that applied for the advertised 200 vacancies.

The IGG’s report further indicates that while the job advert clearly indicated that all applicants had to be qualified Grade 111 teachers fully registered by the Ministry of Education and Sports, 35 of those recruited did not meet that requirement. Some of them merely claimed to have registration numbers without registry certificates. The IGG report also revealed that the whole procedure did not follow ranking and merit.

The irregularities

A big number of teachers who failed English and mathematics during their college training were recruited while some people performed well in the interviews but were left out.

A case in point was Shadia Nagawa, a resident of Ssaza in Masaka Municipality, who scored 48 per cent but was not granted a job yet more than 30 applicants scored less than 40 per cent but were given jobs. The report also indicates that some applicants were recruited without being interviewed.

Report disapproved

Mr Zimaze (chairperson of the disbanded committee) said the IGG based on partial data to order their suspension. He added that Rakai has several hard-to-reach areas which made it imperative to give priority to those who convinced the committee that they would accept the locations’ hard conditions instead of recruiting urban born teachers that would be habitually absent from duty due to the local conditions.

“Some of those recruited were already volunteering and were recommended by their supervisors. Even the former CAO recommended 27 teachers for approval claiming they were already in service in hard to reach areas and being the overall supervisor of government workers in the district, we could not turn down his proposal,” Mr Zimaze said.

He attributed the disbandment of the DSC to power struggle within the Rakai District Council. The District chairperson, Robert Mugabi, however, insisted the DSC was disbanded on the directive of the IGG over favouritism, corruption and incompetence.

The promise

On May 26, during the swearing in of the district chairperson and councillors, Mugabi promised to check on ethical standards of of the DSC.