IGG halts Nkumba Primary trustees board operations over mismanagement

The Inspectorate of Government (IGG) has halted the operations of the Nkumba day and boarding primary school trustee board after investigations into its management of the school asset’s were found to be illegal and contravened with the School’s management committee’s authority’s over the running of the school.

According to the head of Kampala regional IGG’s office Mr Micheal Tumukurate, investigations into the members of the trustees operations began after receiving complaints from the school management committee over the mismanagement of the school assets by the trustees of the school and same members illegaly benefitting directly from tenants from part of the school land that was leased out to businesses.

“The inspectorate carried out investigations and our findings were the allegations were true, we established that sometime back some members of the school management committee leased a part of the school’s land to a certain Asian but later on the Asian took them to court and the registered trustees decided to settle the matter out of court” he said.

Mr Tumukurate made the remarks while addressing journalists after a closed door meeting with members of the trustees board, school management committee and district officials at Katabi Town Council hall on Friday.

“By the time the whole settlement was done one acre out of the two acres had to be sold to compensate at Shs 450 million, however the lawyer of the registered trustees decided to declare Shs 300 million, out of the undeclared Shs 150 million, Shs 80 million was transferred and paid to one of the trustees Mr Eria Muwanga Lutaaya. After getting that money he shared it with some other members of registered trustees, Shs 70 million was retained by the lawyer as legal fees” he said.

Mr Tumukurate said the registered trustees abused their powers to illegally benefit from the proceeds of the sale of the land.

“The other major finding is that there was a conflict between the school management committee and members of registered trustees, members of the registered trustees had assumed powers of the school management committee, it wasn’t so clear on who actually reports to who, we also discovered that these particular registered trustees were fraudulently and illegally constituted” he said.

Mr Tumukurate said the inspectorate found the trustee’s registration with the ministry of lands illegal which prompted it to call for its termination so that the school is run normally by school management committee as it’s provided within the law.

“We have recovered titles of the school which were registered in the names of registered trustees, since the trustees are no longer trusted with the school property, the land titles have been handed over to the Wakiso district CAO, they are going to go through a full process of registration to be registered in the name of Wakiso district local government with specifics on the user as Nkumba Day and Boarding Primary School” he said.

Mr Tumukurate said the inspectorate has directed Mr Eria Muwanga Lutaaya to refund Shs 80 million to government within 14 days, failure of which he will be prosecuted by the inspectorate of government

The deputy Wakiso district CAO Ms Betty Nankidu said the biggest conflict arose when the school management failed to work together with the board of trustees to manage the school’s assets

“The board of trustees assumed that they had more authority to make decisions concerning running of the school without the input of the school management which led them to take the matter to the IGG’s office who has come out to clearly state that the school management is the one with the authority to run the school. Letters have been given to members of the board of authorities to return money that was never deposited to the schools bank accounts” she said.

Ms Nankidu added, “We have been able to recover the land titles that were being kept by members of the board of trustees, we have been asked by the inspectorate of Government to register them in the schools names instead of in people’s names because anytime it can be mismanaged which will not be of any use to the public yet it’s a government school”.

 The chairperson school management committee Mr Eldad Ddungu said the wrangles that have lasted for more than a decade started when the people who donated land to start the school started up a trustee a few years after the school was opened.

“They exceeded their authority when they showed they were in charge of running the school and were benefitting directly from the schools assets yet nothing was being remitted to the school account. There was a time when they sold off part of the school land saying they were going to construct a hall at the school but up to now it’s still at the foundation level, it has never been constructed” he said.

Mr Ddungu said the trustees have also been ordered to reopen one of the schools account which had been closed by the trustees within one week to allow the money be used by the school to operate.

“They said they refunded the money they received from an Indian investor, however they remained with a large amount of the money and shared it amongst themselves as trustees, the good thing the IGG has ordered them to pay back that money, some have been given a week others a fortnight” he said.