BY Joseph Mary Buwule;
President Yoweri Museveni has reiterated his government’s commitment to intensifying the fight against corruption, saying the process of exposing wrongdoing in public institutions is straightforward and will soon yield results.
Speaking on the issue of alleged “ghost employees” in government payrolls, the President said internal audits had already uncovered a significant number of irregular entries within the system, particularly following a payroll verification exercise reportedly initiated by the Ministry of Finance.
“The fight against corruption is not as difficult as people think. You will see in the coming days how we are going to cause a lot of casualties,” Museveni said.
He explained that the Ministry of Finance had created a team to audit employees and verify whether some names on the payroll were “ghost workers.” According to him, the exercise quickly revealed a large number of questionable entries.
Museveni further claimed that after the findings were communicated, the matter was forwarded to the Office of the Auditor General (Uganda). However, he expressed concern that instead of submitting the report directly back to the Ministry, the Auditor General took the matter to Parliament.
“This is not a political matter. I am going to go directly to CID to handle these people because this is not political. Parliament committees are not CID. They are trying to divert the issue,” he said, referring to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID).
He added that the issue revolves around fraudulent payroll management, alleging that funds intended for a fixed number of workers were being manipulated.
“When I send money to pay 20 people, each one is being paid accordingly. You go and pay 25, you create artificial people. It is very easy to find these artificial people. It is just a matter of time,” he said.
The President emphasized that the government would pursue those responsible, insisting that the source of funding and payroll allocations were clear and traceable.
The remarks come amid renewed national focus on public sector accountability, payroll integrity, and the broader anti-corruption agenda under ongoing government reforms.