How a minister’s directive to lay off parish chiefs could haunt local governments
GULU – The Minister of Local Government, Raphael Mugyezi, has directed the Chief Administrative Officers [CAOs] in Northern Uganda to scrutinise the academic papers of all the parish chiefs and ensure that those recruited meet the required qualifications.
In an inclusive interview with the Cooperator last Wednesday, Minister Magyezi disclosed that a number of parishes in the districts of the Northern region are still administered by unqualified staff.
The parish chiefs will play an important role in the implementation of the Parish Development Model [PDM] as they have the responsibility of accounting for the funds, among other duties.
The minister warned that the government will not work with incompetent staff in the implementation of PDM. As such, he has ordered officials to terminate contracts of parish chiefs who were hired without genuine academic documents. A related diploma was required for this job.
He blamed the district service commissions for the mess saying, “We have realized that some of them presented false academic documents and some of the programs attached to their qualifications don’t exist in any of the Colleges in the country.”
He said parish chiefs who were recruited earlier with certificates must also be terminated for lack of required academic papers. This category of chiefs was recruited years before PDM was adopted.
Meanwhile, a ministerial statement has instructed Gulu district local government to settle the arrears of its staff that Gulu High Court said were dismissed unfairly. This means the district will incur a heavy debt as the central government will not compensate the affected employees.
It should be remembered that in 2000, the Ministry of Public Service directed Gulu District Local Government to dismiss parish chiefs who did not possess the required academic papers. Following the directive, the district council in the year 2001 passed a resolution sanctioning the layoff of 89 parish chiefs working in various sub-counties.
Those affected would run to court, which in 2011 awarded them Shs 2.6 billion in compensation, attracting an 18 percent interest rate. The debt has soared to Shs 6 billion as the district has not paid the former staff as ordered by court.
In December 2016, a team of court bailiffs from Auctioneers and Court Bailiffs Associates attached some assets of the district to recover the money.
Saddled with a soaring debt load, the district officials have sold at least 30 plots the district owned in a bid to clear some of the debt.
Court also sanctioned the attachment of several assets of the district for auctioning including 23 vehicles, Pece War Memorial Stadium, the district administration building and 40 plots of land.
The Chief Administrative Officer for Gulu, Ismail Ochengen, noted that the debt has destabilized Gulu to provide services to the locals since the district had to use locally raised revenues to settle the arrears while the Central government backed off.
However, though he could not dispel the minister’s allegations of irregularities in the recruitment of the junior officers, Ochengen said the new district service commission will verify the claims to avoid any legal implications.
Rhoda Oroma, the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Oyam district revealed that the directive was issued in 2017 to CAOs to recruit parish chiefs with a minimum Diploma.
She noted that those who were earlier recruited with only a certificate were advised to upgrade, adding that a grace period of three years, has elapsed and that they will be laid off from work in line with the current government policy.
She revealed that the District Service Commission has so far verified all the files of the parish chiefs in all the 74 parishes in the district and discovered three of the officers who will be affected.
“Two of them presented false academic documents while one other only has a certificate and he is of age and couldn’t get back to school and so they will be laid off but the two will again be prosecuted for forgery,” Oroma told the Cooperator in an interview.
Meanwhile, the Oyam District Resident Commissioner Gillian Akulu says that the mobilisation of the locals to implement the PDM has kicked off with the formation of parish development monitoring teams in each of the parishes in the district.
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