Minister orders arrest of 36 parish chiefs over forged academic papers

Kagadi, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The State Minister for Local Government Rusoke Busingye has ordered for the arrest of 36 parish chiefs and principal town agents in Kagadi district for using forged academic papers to get appointed into the positions.

Of the 36 accused persons, 27 presented forged academic documents while seven presented academic documents from institutions that are not on the list of recognised higher education training institutions as of June 30, 2021.

Two others, the minister says they were not able to have their academic documents verified due to failure to obtain their academic information from the training institutions they attached on their application forms.

The findings on which the minister based the arrest order are contained in a report released on Friday February 11, 2022, following an investigation into the alleged recruitment of unqualified personnel to fill the positions of parish chiefs and principal town agents in Kagadi.

The investigations were conducted by a four member team led by Rusoke herself who has this Friday presented with the findings to stakeholders during a meeting held at Kagadi district headquarters.

The investigations follow a petition by a whistle blower to the local government ministry accusing the Kagadi district service commission of engaging in corruption and recruiting 17 people who lacked the prerequisite academic documents.

Minister Rusoke has noted that only 69 appointed parish chiefs and principal town agents presented genuine academic documents and these, she ordered should be deployed with immediate effect.

The district service commission in its sitting on December 8, 2021 appointed 105 Parish Chiefs and Principal Town Agents. The job requirements for the post of Parish Chief was a Diploma in Public Administration and Management, Social Work and Social Administration, Development Studies or Business Administration from a recognised institution.

It was also established that as alleged, the positions of district engineer, district natural resources officer, district health officer, principal health inspector, district planner, principal nursing officer and principal human resource officer district service commission have remained unfilled for a long time due to various reasons.

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