sh600m meant for KCCA retiree teachers disappears
Retired secondary school teachers in Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) are losing over sh600 millions meant for their ‘Transport & Baggage Allowance.” The Drone Media has learnt.
The money is part of the package a retiree teacher gets together with their gratuity and pension. Surprisingly, KCCA only pays retired teachers gratuity and pension, claiming that it is all they have been given by Ministry of Finance.
Yet, an official at KCCA told The Drone Media that the money for transport & baggage allowance is mandatory to every retiree. These are teachers who, under decentralization, are handled by KCCA, and they have not been getting this money. The question is, “Where does it go? Who takes this money?”
An officer at KCCA told The Drone Media that the city authority handles only gratuity and pension for secondary school teachers. However, he said, the city authority handles everything as far as primary teachers are concerned within Kampala city. While the primary school teachers get all their full packages which include transport & baggage allowance, gratuity and pension, their counterparts in secondary schools go without.
James Sanya, the Principal Human Resource Officer in the Ministry of Education and Sports, told The Drone Media that every retiree gets everything at the district they retire from. Therefore, KCCA is mandated to draw the budget for all retirees within its jurisdiction.
Peter Barisigara, a teacher who retired last year, but is processing his retirement package, budgeted for everything, but was surprised to find his transport and baggage missing. When Barisigara tried to ask officials handling his file at KCCA, he was advised to go to Human Resource of KCCA, but he failed to trace the officer. The officers told him that they have not been paying it, they will revisit their books and start paying.
The Drone Media has established that unlike KCCA, other districts pay full packages, these include transport and baggage allowances together with gratuity and pension.
According to information availed to The Drone Media, Ministry of Education and Sports’ role is to recruit teachers and payments are done by Ministry of Finance and districts.
The Ministry of Public Service scrutinize the list of teachers got from Ministry of Education and Sports, to determine the salary and find out eligibility and competence before the list is sent to Ministry of Finance.
In Summary, the order starts from Ministry of Education & Sports to Ministry of Public Service to Ministry of Finance and the money goes to jurisdictional districts and the districts pay individual teachers.
Therefore, with this background information, it is clear that KCCA is embezzling teachers money. The KCCA officials are taking advantage of gullible teachers; they divert the money to their individual pockets and accounts.