Seven Primary School headteachers in Luwero district are in trouble for failing to account for 30 million Shillings under the Universal Primary Education programme.
The said money was released by the government in the 2020/21 financial year to purchase scholastic materials, handle emergency expenditures, facilitate co-curricular activities, administration and school management.
But of this, 4.8 million Shillings remain unaccounted for from Bembe Hill Primary School, and another 5.5 million shillings given to Kikube Roman Catholic Primary School cannot be tracked. The headteacher of St Bruno Kalagala Primary School also failed to account for 4.3 million Shillings and four million Shillings was unaccounted for at Ndagga St Mary’s Primary School.
Others are from Kibengo Roman Catholic Primary School where 5.2 million Shillings was unaccounted for and Nsaasi UMEA Primary School where the headteacher has since retired without accounting for three million Shillings. At Nandere Primary School, the headteacher failed to account for 4.5 million Shillings.
The Chairperson of Luwero District Public Accounts Committee Erukana Wamala Kyoole says that the headteachers were supposed to account for 30,689,132 Shillings before the District Internal Auditor. But, they remained adamant, even after being summoned countless times to appear before the District Public Accounts Committee to explain the expenses.
He adds that failure to appear before the committee implies that the headteachers have no accountability to present because they mismanaged the funds. Wamala says that the committee has recommended to District Council and Chief Administrative Officer to recover the money from the accused headteachers.
Luwero District Chairman Erastus Kibirango says that the district council has also recommended that apart from recovering funds from the accused headteachers, they should also appear before the Rewards and Sanctions Committee for disciplinary action.
Some of the headteachers said they were yet to get PAC or CAO directives on the matter.
Luwero District Chief Administrative Officer Innocent Asaba said that he is waiting for the reports from the PAC and district council to take action on the headteachers.
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