Museveni Orders Director CID To Arrest And Charge Accounting Officers Response For Payroll Fraud, Ghost Workers.

The Cabinet has tasked the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) of the Uganda Police Force to apprehend permanent secretaries and other government accounting officers responsible for payroll fraud, including ghost workers and irregular recruitment in their respective agencies.

The Minister of ICT and National Guidance, Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, told media in Kampala that the CID has been put on high alert to immediately take action against accounting officers who will be found to have facilitated payroll fraud.

The decision was made during the cabinet meeting at State House Entebbe on Monday after the Minister of Public Service, Muruli Mukasa, presented a report on the special audit of the government payroll.

The audit was conducted by the Office of the Auditor General to verify the number of civil servants that the government has and identify those who abscond duty, among other things.

The audit unearthed multiple government ministries, departments, and agencies that have ghost workers on payroll, overpaying workers, underpaying workers, and workers who were not properly recruited, among other irregularities.

The report shows that there are some civil servants who never showed up for the verification while others could not be verified.