Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) board has indefinitely suspended seven of its top managers who are accused of masterminding a scam in which 300 ghost workers have been on the company’s payroll.
The scam was unearthed by Ministry of Finance auditors at the request of ICT minister Hon.Frank Tumwebaze.
Speaking about the saga from Geneva, Switzerland where Tumwebaze is presently,the minister told TrumpetNews.
“About 6 months ago, i wrote to Ministry of Finance asking them to help us carry out an audit on UBC about their financial spend. The audit was to help guide us on how we can our revamp,overhaul and align the whole institution. We have all along been waiting for that audit report. By the time I left Kampala, the report hadn’t been submitted to my office. I am anxious to look through the findings. That report and another from Dr. Peter Mwesige’s, my Ministry will then take decisive actions on UBC.”
An insider told us that last Thursday, the UBC board headed by acting chairman Simon Kaheru took the stern action to suspend the Human Resource (HR) manager Barbra Kyomugisha, principal accountant in charge of payroll Clementine Aribo, public relations officer Rafsanjani Abbey Tatya, head of ICT, Jagenda Ssemakula and others.
Our source further said that the managing director Winston Agaba was not affected but is currently on paternal leave.
Dirty findings
The audit was conducted 3 months ago and finance ministry officials discovered that half of the workers on the payroll never existed and were actually ghost payees.
The audit also found out that workers who left the national broadcaster 6 years were still receiving salary.
The biggest number of ghost workers reported were under Star FM followed by Star TV and then upcountry radio stations which are also run by UBC.
Minister Tumwebaze while reacting to this said “This is possible. There must have been workers who arent meant to pick salary and had left the corporation years ago. UBC has unbelievably high number of workers.”
He concluded that his Ministry will study the audit report and take necessary measures.
When reached for a commment Kaheru said that Winston would talk to us later in the day.
It remains unclear whether the MD Winston Agaba’s job is safe.
TrumpetNews will bring you full details of the audit report and updates on any new developments
