Legislators have urged government to consider replacing the current recruitment system in local governments with a digital system, as a response to the glaring allegations of corruption and bribery in district and city Service commissions.

“The Ministry of Public Service should roll out e-recruitment processes across all local governments. This will limit physical interactions between job applicants and the commissions,” said Hon. Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, the Chairperson of the Committee on Public Service and Local Government.

Mapenduzi said that the committee registered stark allegations of corruption and bribery by the service commissions during oversight visits to local governments to the extent that citizens have lost confidence in the recruitment system.

“In Kikuube District, we learnt that the district failed to over Shs2 trillion meant for recruitment in the 2021/2022 financial year. The district at the time did not have a functional district service commission and made attempts to recruit through hiring the services of Kibaale District Service Commission but the recruitment process was suspended due to allegations of bribery,” he said.

Mapenduzi said these while presenting the report of the Committee on Public Service and Local Government about the functionality of DSCs and CSCs on personnel management in Northern, Western and Eastern regions, during the sitting of the House on Friday, 30 August 2024 and  chaired by Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa.

Mapenduzi related how his committee interacted with aggrieved people who had been kicked out of job contests due to bribery.

“In some interactions, aggrieved persons came up to state allegations against both political leaders and staff. During the radio talk show on Voice of Lango, a caller complained that the service commission asked for shs5 million to guarantee jobs,” he added.

The committee report cites political meddling in the recruitment process in contravention of the Local Government Act which provides for independence of the commissions.

There were instances in some local governments where the recruitment processes were put on hold by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) as a result of reported irregularities in the process.

MPs complained that prosecution of such cases tends to take long thereby affecting service delivery. Legislators asked that the IGG should ensure investigations on reported cases are handled expeditiously, and timelines should be in place within which such cases are concluded.

Mapenduzi further highlighted the woes surrounding the pension scheme which he said is marred with discriminatory and late payments.

“Pension management is problematic partly due to data migration in local governments. Transition from human capital management system delayed payment and as such there were pension arrears,” he said.

There were also complains that some pensioners were receiving pension that is not aligned with their salary scales. The committee called for a robust review of the pension.

Tayebwa observed that the report has critical issues requiring an in-depth debate which he deferred to a later sitting.

“This is a critical report that is cross cutting to the whole country, the issues of service commissions are big that I would not like to rush the debate. We will discuss the report when we go back to Parliament,” said Tayebwa.