The Ministry of Public Service is set to conduct a verification exercise for public officers in ministries, departments, agencies, and local governments who remained unverified or partially verified during the special audit of the payroll by the Office of the Auditor General.
According to Mary Mugasa Akiik, the Minister of State for Public Service, the exercise will run from March 11, 2024, to May 17, 2024, at the National Archives and Records Centre (NARC) along Lourdel Road, Kampala.
“We shall continue with the validation of public officers who missed the verification exercise, those partially verified, and those absent on official duty, study, or sick leave,” she said.
She asked the affected officers to come along with an introductory letter personally signed by the responsible officer. A scanned copy should be emailed by the responsible officer. A valid employee identity card; an original and photocopy of the national identity card; original and photocopies of academic and professional certificates; and original and photocopies of appointment or promotion letters.
She also asked them to present an original and photocopy of the confirmation letter; an original and photocopy of the current deployment letter; and a pay slip for December 2023 and January 2024, signed by the responsible officer and public officer who will remain unverified, which shall be permanently deleted from the payroll.
Last year, the Auditor General conducted a specialised audit encompassing the salary payroll of the entire government, involving the validation of all government employees in 367 entities.
During the comprehensive validation exercise, a total of 358,753 employees diligently provided all the required documents and information and underwent thorough verification. These employees were subsequently confirmed by their respective accounting officers.
In addition, 25,439 employees were partially verified as they did not submit all necessary documents. It was recommended that these individuals remain on the payroll temporarily until the appointing authority completes their verification process and takes appropriate action.
Approximately 2,246 employees were absent for legitimate reasons such as official leave, sick leave, secondment, and official work abroad, among other valid causes. Additionally, 7,744 individuals who were absent from the base payroll in February 2023 actively participated in the validation exercise and furnished all required documents.
The audit report highlighted a critical issue involving 2,067 employees who were paid a total of Shs1.87 billion in the base month alone (equivalent to Shs22.44 billion annually), yet they did not meet the validation exercise requirements. Consequently, it was strongly recommended that these individuals be excluded from the validated payrolls.
Furthermore, 6,307 employees were either confirmed as deceased, had absconded, or had retired by the time of validation. Among them, 2,483 employees were promptly removed from the payroll, while 3,824 were not deleted in a timely manner. As a result, Shs23.62 billion was erroneously disbursed to them after their exit date. It was recommended that these individuals be removed from the validated payroll to rectify this financial irregularity.
Lastly, the audit report identified 1,818 individuals who, in the base month of February 2023 alone, received payments totaling Shs560 million and were subsequently confirmed as non-existent, essentially representing ghost employees. These improper payments could potentially lead to an annual financial loss of Shs6.72 billion to the government.
The auditor general asked the Inspectorate of Government and Criminal Investigation Directorate to investigate cases of ghosts, irregular employment, loss of funds, and public officers who have occasioned loss, misappropriated public resources, and other forms of irregularities be subjected to disciplinary actions in accordance with the Uganda Public Service Standing Orders, 2021, and the Public Finance, Management Act 2015.
