District officials on the spot over recruitments

Omoro. Omoro District Service Commission is on the spot over allegations of irregular recruitment of civil servants to fill vacant positions at the district.

In January, Omoro District advertised jobs calling for suitable applicants for positions of information technology officer, district engineer, district environment officer, parish chiefs, senior accountants, senior secretaries, assistant town clerk and veterinary officer, among others.

Interviews were conducted in April, but before successful candidates were officially selected, some people had received their appointment letters, creating suspicion that recruitment was a sham.
Some of the unsuccessful applicants are now protesting the manner in which recruitment was conducted and want an investigation into what they called a “fraudulent recruitment exercise”.

Applicants speak out
One of the applicants for the position of Town Clerk, Omoro Town Council, who preferred anonymity in order to speak freely, told Daily Monitor that while he had all the requirements needed for the job, he did not make it to the shortlist.
He claimed those without the required qualifications were instead shortlisted.

Another complainant, who identified himself as John, alleged that those applicants who were close associates with top district officials were recruited, while those considered ‘outsiders’ were denied the opportunity.

He said he applied for the position of parish chief, but was surprised to find his colleagues with appointment letters before a final list of applicants could be pinned on the noticeboard.
“The whole process was not transparent at all. We are demanding for thorough investigations since there was no recruitment procedures followed,” he said.

He claimed some of the recruited staff lack academic qualifications.
“We want the Inspector General of Government to step in and investigate members of the District Service Commission for faulting the recruitment procedures,” he said.
Omoro District human resource officer Alfonse Oboni, however, denied any wrongdoing, saying the whole process was “very transparent”.

Mr Oboni, who also doubles as the secretary to the District Service Commission, while appearing on a local radio station last Friday, said although some of the applicants had the required academic papers, they failed the interviews simply because they failed to follow instructions.

“Despite the fact that the shortlisted applicants sat for interviews, they might have misinterpreted the given questions hence giving wrong answers, something which put them at a disadvantage,” he said.
Ms Ann Okwir, the Omoro District senior human resource officer, also denied any wrongdoing, saying the process was transparent.

The Omoro District Chief Administrative Officer, Mr John Bosco Akera, told Daily Monitor that he has so far received five complaints.

He said he would investigate the matter to its logical conclusion to address the concerns raised. He challenged whoever was not satisfied with recruitment to put their complaints in writing.

The Omoro District chairperson, Mr Douglas Peter Okello Okao, called for immediate investigations into the alleged irregular recruitment.
Omoro District, formerly Omoro County, was curved from Gulu District in 2016 and it became operational on July 1st the same year.

EARLIER SCANDALS
In September 2016, both Mr Alfonse Oboni, the Omoro District human resource officer and Ms Ann Okwir, the Omoro District senior human resource officer, appeared before the Auditor General to explain how more than Shs70m was paid to non-existent staff as salary.
The 2014/2015 Auditor General’s report indicated that there was irregular payment of salaries to several staff.
The report cited two cases where two ghost staff received salaries ranging from Shs1.8m to Shs2.2m.