Date: March 11,2025
The State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SH-ACU), in collaboration with the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), has arraigned six education officials from Ntungamo District before the Anti-Corruption Division of the High Court on charges of causing financial loss and abuse of office.
The accused are:
- Bahati Fred – District Education Officer
- Nabaasa Gordon – 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
- Ntereire Geoffrey – Head Teacher, Kikoni SDA Primary School
The officials have been remanded until March 18 and March 20, 2025, respectively.
Investigations revealed that the implicated head teachers deliberately inflated pupil enrollment figures in their schools in order to receive larger capitation grants. The District and Municipal Education Officers, whose mandate included verifying and approving these figures, allegedly failed to carry out their responsibilities, enabling the fraudulent submissions to be forwarded to the Ministry of Education and Sports for funding.
According to records from the Ministry, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED) disbursed capitation grants for 124,817 pupils across 249 Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools in Ntungamo District during the 2023/2024 financial year. However, field verification confirmed that the actual number of pupils was approximately 80,000, exposing a discrepancy of more than 40,000 “ghost pupils.”
This fraudulent scheme is estimated to have caused the government a financial loss of approximately UGX 1 billion.