Parliament halts transfer of relief funds to teachers

Parliament has issued new guidelines for the disbursement of Covid-19 relief funds to private school teachers.

Until then, the funds are to remain untouched to avert a repeat of the irregularities and abuses witnessed in the transfer of government relief funds last year. 

Last year, a non-governmental organisation donated Shs30 billion to be given to private school teachers, whose income was disrupted for close to two years, following Covid-19 containment measures. Each teacher is due to receive Shs100,000.

On Tuesday, Deputy Speaker Anita Among suspended debate on the matter, until the report on government relief funds had been presented, so as to offer insight into the practical way forward.

“One thing you need to appreciate, the previous programme was maybe 20 percent successful. We are yet to get a report. The money that was meant for cities instead went to the villages. The rightful people did not get the money so let us not say because the other one was successful, the other one was unsuccessful...,” she said on Tuesday

Following the tabling of the report by the Joint Committee on Public Accounts (central and Local Government) on the exercise to verify the lists of beneficiaries of the Covid-19 relief funds yesterday, that revealed that a large chunk of the government relief did not reach the intended beneficiaries, the Deputy Speaker asked for a change in the method of selection of beneficiaries and called for more strict oversight by Parliament.

Ms Among has now directed that the Ministry of Education takes over the exercise of transferring the funds.

On Tuesday, the Minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Betty Amongi, indicated that her ministry would effect the pay-outs.

“We need guidelines on how this money is going to be given out. The ministry of Education should take lead in giving out this money...analysis and compilation of beneficiaries must be done by the administrative leadership. The ministry of Gender will play an oversight role, and the Committee of Gender must be involved. Do not give out money before we approve,” Ms Among said.

She added: “The true line industries must be involved. That was disaster, we needed to involve the minister of Relief and Disaster Preparedness because they have the technical expertise but if we want to do it on our own, then we will have a problem.”  

The Deputy Speaker said MPs should be involved in the process.

 “We have to do our oversight duty,” she said. 

On Tuesday, the Minister for Gender told the House that the process has been slow and only a few teachers had registered a month into the programme.

As of January 31, only 11,531 of the 300,000 teachers had registered. The process is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

However, Ms Isha Kabanda, the Butambala Woman MP, said the requirements imposed are restrictive and may cause many to miss out on the relief because many primary school teachers are not registered.

“When we say we want to give those who have registered and leave out others, we are not solving the problem. It is the conditions they gave, they are restrictive in nature. The intention of the donor was to help but instead we have made it so restrictive that we fail our people’s efforts to access this money,” she said.

Mr Roland Ndyomugyenyi, Rukiga County MP, said:  “It is not only the problem of the Internet but also electricity, so when the ministry says data should be uploaded on the electronic system, it becomes very unfair to the teachers.”

He added: “My suggestion is we resort to manual ways, to register them in a book so that when you go to the district you know in this district we have these private teachers instead of introducing something that is very cumbersome.”

Ms Brenda Nabukenya, the Luweero Woman MP, questioned why pre-primary teachers were not considered and yet the sub-sector is predominantly private and has been on lockdown as well.

The MPs also want the amount of money accorded to the teachers to be increased.

“Let us not equate our teachers to the boda bodas. You cannot give teachers shs100,000 when you gave the same to the boda bodas,” Ms Among said. 

“During the Covid-19 money transfer, the community was also give Shs100,000. There is a tendency with the community not to respect our teachers. Let teachers be given slightly higher amount than the community at least we can give Shs200,000,” Gilbert Olanya,  Kilak South

Eligibility

Teachers eligible are those who are not on the government payroll and must be fully registered with a licence or present proof of submission for registration.

One must have been already teaching in a licensed school when the pandemic hit and did not receive any assistance from the government.

The teachers should also own a mobile money line.

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