By Our Reporter
NATIONAL
The Ntungamo District Education Officer, Municipal Education Officer and four Primary School Head teachers have been charged at court and remanded to prison.
The officials were arraigned before the Anti-corruption Division on charges of causing Financial Loss and Abuse of Office today, Tuesday, March 11, 2025.
They have been identified as Bahati Fred, District Education Officer and Nabaasa Gordon, the Municipal Education Officer.
The Head teachers are; 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 officials have been remanded until March 18 and March 20, 2025, respectively.
According to the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, the head teachers, employed by the Ntungamo District Local Government, inflated the number of pupils in their schools to receive larger capitation grants.
It also accuses the education officers of failing 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 Finance 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 from the Ministry of Education and Sports.
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.
