A recent whistleblower report submitted to the Inspector General of Government (IGG) has accused Ismail Mulindwa the Director of Basic and Secondary Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports, of manipulating his official age in order to extend his stay in public office well beyond the mandatory retirement age.
The report, dated September 9, 2024, received by the Inspectorate of Government Betty Kamya alleges serious abuse of office and calls for an investigation into the director’s actions.
The core of the accusation revolves around claims that Mr. Mulindwa has deliberately altered his birthdate on official records, allowing him to remain in office despite having already reached retirement age.
According to the report, Mulindwa was born in 1962 in Rugaaga, Isingiro, Western Uganda.
It details his educational history, including his attendance at Masaka Secondary School, his qualification from Nkozi National Teachers College (NTC) in 1987, and his subsequent employment with the Ministry of Education and Sports that same year.
However, the whistleblower highlights a discrepancy: official documents now state Muldwa’s birth year as 1969, which would mean that when he began working for the Ministry in 1987, he was only 17 years old—a clear impossibility.
The report emphasizes that this inconsistency points to a deliberate attempt to falsify his age in order to remain in public service beyond the mandatory retirement age for civil servants.
The report further alleges that Mr. Ismail has influenced similar extensions of service for other individuals within the Ministry of Education, bypassing the established Public Service Standing Orders, which clearly define the retirement age for public servants.
This, the whistleblower argues, is an act of favoritism that undermines the principles of fairness and transparency in public service.
If these allegations are proven, they point to a wider issue of corruption and inequality within the Ministry of Education and Sports.
The whistleblower’s letter expresses concern over the precedent such actions set, noting that they compromise the integrity of the Ministry’s human resource policies.
Public servants who have reached the mandatory retirement age are required to vacate their positions, allowing for fresh leadership to take over.
“This selective and arbitrary extension of service for himself as a public servant creates inequality, fosters favoritism, and is a violation of the principles of transparency, fairness, and accountability,” the whistleblower states in the report.
“Public servants who have served their time and are due for retirement should be treated fairly and equally under the law. There should be no exceptions made for individuals based on favoritism or personal connections.”
The report urges the IGG to investigate Ismail Mulindwa’s educational and employment records, including his time at Masaka Secondary School, Nkozi NTC, and Makerere University, to verify the correct birthdate and establish whether there has been any wrongdoing.
The whistleblower insists that holding public officials accountable is essential to restoring public trust in the Ministry of Education and Sports.
When contacted Mr Mulindwa said he would wait for the IGG to complete investigations and then comment on the matter.
“I don’t want to preempt what is before the IGG.”