By Angel Lubowa
Six Ntungamo district officials were yesterday , March 11,2025 arraigned before the Anti-corruption Division on charges of causing Financial Loss and Abuse of Office.
The officials who included Bahati Fred, the district education officer,Nabaasa Gordon, the Municipal education officer,
Nabasa Rushegyera Abias-Former Head Teacher, Ntungamo Primary School,Komuhangi Allen-Head Teacher, Ruhko Primary School, Munuunura Bernards, Head Teacher, Maato Primary School
and Ntereire Geoffrey-Head Teacher, Kikoni SDA Primary School
The suspects were arrested by the state House Anti corruption unit working together with Uganda police and the office of the DPP after getting a tip off.
They denied the charges and were remanded until March 18 and March 20, 2025, respectively.
Court heard that the head teachers, employed by the Ntungamo District Local Government, inflated the number of pupils in their schools to receive larger capitation grants.
Additionally, the education officers failed to verify the submitted figures before forwarding them to the Ministry of Education & Sports for fund disbursement, resulting in financial losses for the government.
Investigations revealed that the ministry of education
paid capitation grants for 124,817 pupils across 249 Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools in Ntungamo District for the financial year 2023/2024, according to records .
. However, it was confirmed that the actual number of pupils in the district is around 80,000, leading to a discrepancy of over 40,000 “ghost” pupils for whom the government was paying capitation grants.
This situation has incurred a financial loss of approximately UGX 1 billion.
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