AMURIA: Teachers decry corruption in getting gov’t jobs

Amuria, (UG): Teachers in Amuria District, eastern Uganda have cried out to the concerned authorities over the increasing level of corruption tendencies in obtaining government teaching jobs. They say that officials ask exorbitant money from them to be shortlisted.

The teachers raised their concerns before the Education Policy Review Commission led by Mr. Amanya Mushega on Tuesday as the comission traversed the Teso sub region to gather views from stakeholders on the impending reviews. They were at Amuria primary school in Amuria town.

Teachers especially ladies says some female teachers are sexually harassed in exchange for jobs, something which tortures them psychologically in addition to ignoring their applications citing that some service commission bosses prioritize their relatives and friends when offering vacancies.

“As girls, we’re forced to do very many things whereby you go to someone’s office and he tells you that tit for tat is a fair game, if you don’t have money then sleep with me. I would like the government to help us also with these specific people because someone from Amuria will first give jobs to his people and leave others out,” Ms. Christine Amunyokol, a teacher in Amuria town said.

The teachers urged the government to always deploy officials from different regions to take stewardship of their service commission which they accused of giving jobs to their closest people and leaving them out.

Mr. Paul Emwonya, also a teacher testified how he was called to bribe the bosses with at least sh3m to get the job after being assured that he had performed well in interviews. He says his parents did what was possible and couldn’t pull the said money.

“My name was shortlisted and someone called me that I had performed well and that there was only one place left. He said that to qualify, the bosses are asking for sh3m and my parents were not having the money since only one day was left to close the exercise,” Mr. Emwonya said.

Responding to the allegations raised by teachers, the Senior Inspector of Schools in Amuria District, Mr Paul Okiila condemned the unlawful acts saying their service commission is responsible for handling recruitment exercise but sometimes there are people who take advantage of innocent people to extort money from them claiming they are part of the commission. He advised victims of such people to report them and face charges.

“We have the district service commission that handles issues of recruitment and to the best of my knowledge, they are doing their work well except what I know is that sometimes, some people take advantage when there is an advert and claim to be working with the commission. They take advantage of the innocent people who apply for jobs,” Mr. Okiila said before calling upon victims to expose the culprits.

Efforts to engage the Amuria District Service Commission on the allegations raised were futile as no member of the commission was available for a comment by the time of filing this story.