Districts, municipalities stuck with over 5,000 ghost workers

A host of districts are still stuck with 5,358 civil servants whom the Auditor General recommended to be scrapped off the government payroll, Daily Monitor has established.

The affected civil servants from more than 80 districts, municipalities, cities, and different government departments are said to have absconded from duty even though they continue to draw monthly salaries.

In June 2022, the office of the Auditor General carried out a verification exercise in all districts to eliminate ghost workers and the team insisted on meeting all civil servants physically at their workstations.
After thorough scrutiny, it was discovered that several civil servants had abandoned work for two to five years without giving genuine reasons for their absence.

Some of the districts with the highest number of suspected ghost staff include; Kiryandogo (372), Kibaale (273), Bukwo( 256), and Kagadi( 200) A civil servant is deemed absent if he/she fails to report for duty for more than one day without permission from his immediate supervisor.

Mr Simon Bwiire, the principal human resource officer at the Ministry of Public Service, said they are aware of the problem and they are handling it.
“It’s true that there are some public officers that the Auditor General recommended for permanent deletion from the government payroll and we are going to take action right away. However, we have a different list from the one that is circulating on social media”, he said.

Adding. “Several public officers have also been summoned to the Ministry of Public Service for final verification before permanent deletion because one may have had genuine reasons as to why they missed the same exercise in 2022.”

Civil servants, who include administrators, health workers, and teachers, among others, are said to have absconded from work after attaining other juicy jobs whereas others are said to have gone abroad to look for greener pastures, according to reliable sources.
In 2019, authorities in Bukomansimbi District revealed that several teachers had abandoned their work stations, but continued to earn monthly salaries.

Greener pastures
Investigations by the district education department revealed that about 50 classroom teachers at various primary schools in the district had spent over six months without reporting for duty.  
A teacher is deemed absent if he fails to report for duty for more than one day without permission from the head teacher.

The report further revealed that none of the absentee teachers applied for study leave, maternity leave, annual leave, or sick leave.
Leave refers to time off from work to which employees are entitled.
Investigators discovered that many absentee teachers had left the country for green pastures in Middle East countries to work as cleaners, housemaids, and security guards. 

Some of the absentee teachers, the survey revealed, had secured loans from banking institutions to facilitate their travel expenses, unfortunately after going, they left the burden to the government to service their loans since they applied as civil servants who earn salaries and when the salary was paid, it was being taken by the banks.
According to Mr James Kakooza, a retired teacher in Masaka District, the salary discrepancies among the civil servants is one of the key drivers of abandonment from duty among civil servants.

“The salaries received by some civil servants are truly not satisfying compared to their needs at home and the standards of living. Some workers don’t want to lose their government jobs even after acquiring other private jobs because they want to earn that little payment even when they no longer work. That’s why many of them will always abandon work,” he said.
 Mr Edmond Ntimba, the Lyantonde District chief administrative officer, confirmed that they have three staff on the deletion list, and all absconded from duty four months ago.

“They   [staff] are no longer on our payroll after absconding from duty for several months without permission,” he said.
He noted that the District Service Commission is in the advanced stages of replacing the trio 
According to different sources in districts of  Greater Masaka, at least an average of 100 civil servants have so far applied for early retirement before clocking the mandatory 60 years in the financial year 2022/2023.

The Ministry of Public Service is, however, carrying out a final verification exercise in March and April 2024 to confirm that the workers are truly absent before a permanent deletion from the payroll.
Some civil servants in the local governments have also revealed that their bosses have not followed the Public Service Standing Orders where the performance management scheme is obliged to support a working environment that values employees and facilitates a workplace that motivates, excites, encourages, stimulates and rewards them.

What the law says
According to the Public Standing Orders, it is the responsibility of a public officer to inform the responsible officer in writing, about his or her absence from duty.

In the absence of communication from the public officer and failure to resume duty within 30 days, the public officer is deemed to have abandoned duty and the responsible officer has to stop the salary immediately and submit to the appointing authority for a formal directive of his or her removal from Public Service on abandonment of duty.

Absenteeism and non-compliance have always been cited as one of the evils that have plagued public service and hampered service delivery.