The Kabale Muslim District Khadhi Sheikh Kabu Lule has expressed concern about the persistent job selling within the District Service Commissions in Uganda.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!He was today presiding over the Eid-al-Fitr prayers at Al Majid Jamia Mosque in Kirigime ward, Southern Division, Kabale Municipality.
Sheikh Lule stated that their findings put the job selling at a minimum of Shs. 5 Million for Ugandans seeking District jobs that pay UGX 500,000, while the figure increased where there’s high competition for the jobs.
He condemned Members of the District Service Commissions for not only extorting money from the job seekers, but also receiving bribes from more than one applicant yet there’s always one vacancy they are competing for.
“About 100 people apply for one job, successful applicants are shortlisted for interviews, but you receive bribes from about five of them yet you know that there’s only one vacancy to fill, that’s theft” he said
CUE IN…SHEIKH LULE
The LC.3 Chairperson Central Division in Kabale Municipality, Mr. Sam Arinaitwe concurred with Sheikh Lule, that job selling was a problem that had persisted in Uganda, and gave an example of his nephew, an agriculturalist who was recently asked to pay a bribe of Shs.50 Million to get a job in Buhweju District. Arinaitwe proposed Centralization of District Job recruitment, to minimize corruption in the District Service Commissions.
CUE IN…ARINAITWE ON JOB SELLING 1 RR/ENG
Mr. Arinaitwe partly attributed the problem of job selling to the employment crisis within the country, stating that “people are hungry for jobs, and therefore they do anything within their capacity to secure employment, even if it means paying exorbitant jobs. “Unfortunately, job seekers are only victims of those who were also extorted while acquiring the offices where they are applying for jobs” he said.
CUE IN…ARINAITWE ON JOB SELLING 2 RR/ENG
The 2023/2024 report by the Inspectorate of Government (IGG), exposed a severe and rising crisis of job selling within Uganda’s public service, particularly among District Service Commissions (DSCs).
Between July 2023 and June 2024, nearly 3,000 complaints were lodged with the IGG, a significant portion of which concerned corruption in DSCs.
A separate, in-depth study conducted by the IGG in collaboration with the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) and Makerere University, released alongside the annual findings, revealed that job applicants were asked for bribes totaling UGX 78.7 billion between 2018 and 2022, with actual payments estimated at around UGX 29 billion.
Bribes ranged from UGX 3 million for lower-level positions (nursing assistants, primary teachers) to over UGX 50 million for senior positions like heads of department.
The report also found that six out of 10 successful candidates in the public sector admitted to using bribery or nepotism to secure jobs.
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