The Minister of State for Economic Monitoring, Beatrice Akello, has directed the State House Anti-Corruption Unit to arrest and investigate several officials in Kumi District over allegations of abuse of office, unlawful recruitment, and mismanagement of public funds.
The order was issued on Wednesday during her monitoring visit to government projects in the district. One of the officials named was Miriam Aguti, the Human Resource Officer of Kumi Municipality. She is accused of recruiting workers without clearance from the district service commission, engaging in nepotism by hiring her husband, later promoting him, and unlawfully increasing his salary.
Akello said Aguti had collected money from jobseekers and placed them on the payroll, which created shortages in teacher salaries. She explained that while the district service commission had approved the recruitment of ten teachers, twenty-seven appointment letters were issued even though only twenty candidates had been interviewed.
The minister also accused Aguti of tampering with pension payments. Pensioners who allegedly gave her kickbacks were overpaid, while those who refused were underpaid, a practice that she said had distorted the pension system.
The directive also targeted Francis Eroni, Chairman of the Kumi Municipality Emyooga Boda Boda SACCO. He was accused of working with technical officers to withdraw money from the SACCO account without the mandatory authorization of the municipal commercial officer and the Resident District Commissioner. Akello said that for over a year, he had bypassed the required oversight and excluded even SACCO members.
Investigations were further ordered into Patrick Osire, the Kumi Municipality Engineer. He was accused of absenteeism and negligence after reportedly staying away from duty, ignoring official calls, and leaving his assistant to carry out all the work while continuing to draw a government salary.
In the aftermath of the minister’s revelations, Kumi Municipality Mayor Patrick Ochom called for stronger policies to allow elected leaders to directly monitor financial transactions. He said that without reports from technical officers, it was difficult to know what was happening, and suggested that leaders be given access to computers to track funds in real time as a safeguard against misuse.
The State House Anti-Corruption Unit is now expected to act on the minister’s directive and carry out investigations into the officials named.