The State Minister for Public Service has ordered district leaders, who ring-fence jobs for their children still in school, to stop it with immediate effect.Ms Grace Mary Mugasa, while on the sidelines of the Human Resource Managers Conference in Mbarara District , said the irregular practice renders many qualified citizens jobless. The conference was organised by the Human Resource Managers’ Association of Uganda.
She said there is a public concern that some districts have lacked substantive heads of department for long periods while others have remained in acting capacities for many years amidst service delivery challenges.“It is wrong for some local governments and agencies to keep one in an acting position for six years. One is supposed to be in acting capacity for six months, renewable only once for 12 months, and then you have to declare the position vacant. If that person is not capable of taking the vacancy,” she said.
“The problem is that some people don’t declare these positions because their children have not completed university and the moment they complete, even the one who was in an acting position and has the necessary qualifications is not considered, the jobs are given to their children. Why do some people want to keep positions for their children?” she added.Ms Mugasa said the government had halted recruitment due to the human resource audit and that since it was done, they are going to investigate all the anomalies in recruitment to fill vacant positions and elevate those who have been in an acting capacity.
The Minister for Local Government, Mr Raphael Magyezi, in an interview with Daily Monitor on Sunday, said they have been having so many challenges with district service commissions in most districts, which are now a subject of investigation.
“I wish to remind the district service commissions that His Excellency, time and again, has pointed out a need to pull our socks on issues of integrity and transparency. We are not taking this for granted. We have had challenges of unfairness and lack of transparency with service commissions. The government is going to investigate one by one,” he said.Mr Magyezi further said he has received numerous petitions from districts such as Sheema where people have been in acting capacity for a long and will work with the Ministry of Public Service to see this is handled.