14 ‘ghost’ teachers discovered in Rakai

Police have discovered a ghost teachers’ syndicate that has cost the taxpayers millions of shillings. The ghost teachers were discovered following investigations into a financial loss in one of the micro finance institutions in Rakai District last month.

According to police, the micro finance institution was running a collection of account’s for the ghosts’ salaries.

“When the account of the financial director was scrutinised, it was found that monthly deposits on his account were clearly indicated as salary. This raised suspicion given the fact that the monthly salary deposits were bigger in comparison to what a primary head teacher earns,” reads the report in part.

“A case in point, on 31/03/2012, he received Shs15,058,539/= as the monthly salary for March,”
Police also established that salaries were being deposited on the institutions account in Stanbic Bank – Kyotera branch, from where part of it was credited on the micro finance’s financial director’s personal account.

The investigations
The investigations were carried out last month when police were probing the financial loss, abuse of office and embezzlement of some staff members in the troubled micro finance institution, which eventually led to its closure.

According to police preliminary findings, some names of the suspected ghost teachers were found on staff lists of certain schools though the head teachers could not account for them.
“Some of the head teachers, were surprised to be questioned about teachers, whose names were appearing on the payroll of their schools because they had never included any of them on their staff lists,” read the police report.