By KT Reporter
Six senior education officials from Ntungamo District appeared on Tuesday before the Anti-Corruption Division Court for causing financial loss to the government and abusing their office. They are Fred Bahati, the District Education Officer; Gordon Nabaasa, the Municipal Education Officer; Nabasa Rushegyera Abias, the former head teacher of Ntungamo Primary School; Allen Komuhangi, the head teacher of Ruhoko Primary School; Bernards Munuunura, the head teacher of Maato Primary School; and Geoffrey Ntereire, the head teacher of Kikoni SDA Primary School.
The suspects are accused of inflating pupil enrollment figures in Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools to fraudulently obtain higher capitation grants. The investigation, carried out in collaboration with the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID)and theOffice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), uncovered widespread discrepancies in school records.
“The accused, being employed by the Ntungamo District Local Government and the Government of Uganda in different government schools in Ntungamo District, had been inflating the number of pupils in their schools to obtain more capitation grants from the government,” said the Anti-Corruption Unit in a statement.
The investigation revealed that between 2022 and 2024, the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development had been allocating funds for 124,817 pupils across 249 UPE schools in Ntungamo District for the 2023/2024 financial year. However, only about 80,000 pupils were enrolled, leading to a discrepancy of more than 40,000 ghost students.
Given that the government allocates about Shillings 20,000 per primary school pupil, the discrepancy in Ntungamo District could have resulted in an overpayment of approximately Shillings 860.9 million in capitation grants. However, the Anti-Corruption Unit estimates that the actual financial loss could even be about one billion shillings.
If the funds which are reportedly misused had been properly utilized, they could have made a significant impact on the education sector. For instance, in Kabarole District, 500 million shillingsis allocated as aSchool Facilitation Grant (SFG)for schools across 17 sub-counties. These funds support the construction of classrooms and latrines, as well as the purchase of desks for primary schools under the UPE program.
The investigating officers attributed the loss to several factors, including the deliberate inflation of pupil numbers by headteachers, negligence by the District Education Office, and the misuse of capitation and education grants. Investigators also found that school administrators failed to provide accountability reports before receiving subsequent financial disbursements, contributing to the mismanagement of public funds.
In a related case, two teachers, Tunanukye Marsaile and Nkumiriza Molly, will appear before the Ntungamo Chief Magistrates Court on charges of Conspiracy to Defeat Justice. The two are accused of interfering with an ongoing investigation into pupil enrollment at Nyakasi Primary School by transferring nursery pupils to primary one in an attempt to create the illusion of a higher number of students.
Last year, Uganda Radio Network reported that the Ntungamo capitation scandal was first exposed through an audit by the Special Infrastructure Monitoring Unit, led by Dr. Kenneth Ssemwogerere. The unit, established by Education Minister Janet Museveni, was created to serve as her “ears, eyes, and feet” in monitoring education projects. Its key responsibilities include overseeing school operations, curbing fraud, promoting transparency, and protecting public funds allocated to the education sector.
The audit found that Ntungamo District had 43,045 ghost pupils—students who appeared in official records but did not exist. Janet Museveni later revealed these findings in December during an end-of-year address to Ministry of Education officials, describing the fraud as part of a broader pattern of financial mismanagement within Uganda’s education system.
For years, Uganda’s education system has faced the problem of ghost pupils, where inflated enrollment figures have led to the misallocation of government funds. Estimates from the Ministry of Finance indicate that ghost pupils cost taxpayers approximately 41 billion shillings annually. In 2011, the problem was found to extend beyond ghost pupils when an impromptu headcount ordered by then-Minister Maria Kiwanuka revealed the existence of 43 ghost schools across several districts.
To address this problem, the Ministry of Education introduced the Education Management Information System in 2022 to ensure accurate learner enrollment data and improve planning and management in schools. Although the system is still being rolled out, preliminary findings have already exposed significant discrepancies.
Ministry officials have discovered that some schools reported inflated pupil numbers, but when cross-checked, many of these students were missing. Through this process, nearly half a million over-reported learners have been identified nationwide, and the ministry is preparing to conduct a full data analysis.
Officials from the Ministry of Education have stated that once the ministry finalizes the harmonization of data collected from schools, a clearer picture of the ghost learner problem will emerge.
“This process will allow us to eliminate discrepancies. We will completely address the issue of ghost pupils and ensure that future capitation grants are allocated based only on verified data from the Education Management Information System (EMIS),” Vincent Ssozi, the Assistant Commissioner for Statistics, Monitoring, and Evaluation, said in a recent interview-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
