Lwengo: District Lands Officer Sacked for Abuse of Office

The Inspectorate of Government has sacked Lwengo District lands officer in greater Masaka region for alleged Abuse of Office and Professional misconduct.

The district lands officer identified as Ms. Jackie Seguya was ordered to resign from her duties by the deputy Inspector General of Government Mariam Wangadya in a letter seen by this website.

The decision to sack this senior district officer was reached following a series of investigations into her alleged misconduct and abuse of office which authorities say has had a negative impact on the service delivery of Lwengo district local government.

“It was specifically noted that this office had previously investigated Ms. Jackie Seguya for abuse of office and irregular attendance to duty. That she was thereafter cautioned by the Lwengo District Service Commission (DSC) but she had continued to be irregular at work,” said the IGG.

According to the IGG, Ms. Seguya has been spending all her time running her private law practice alongside her official duties as a civil servant.

Investigations also established that this Senior Lands Management Officer was acting as the Secretary Land Board and in a letter dated July 17, 2017, the CAO Lwengo District assigned her the duty of coordinating all legal issues in the District in liaison with the office of the Solicitor General but did not deliver as expected.

In 2018, Jackie Seguya was investigated under file reference MSK/06/04/2018 for irregular attendance to her duties.

In a report issued on October 2, 2018, it was established that she had been irregular in attendance to her duties. Between July 2017 and June 2018, she was reporting to duty for an average of 5 days per month.

The District Rewards and Sanctions Committee warned her about her irregular attendance to duty but instead continued being very irregular at work and representing her private clients in court, despite the caution from the Lwengo DSC.

Ms. Jackie Seguya admitted to carrying out private legal practice, including representing clients in court as an advocate, stating that DSL had allowed her to do it as part of her professional development.

She also explained that she was not regularly signing the attendance register because of the nature of her work which was mostly field based.

However, she was advised to resign but declined to heed.

“Her actions contravened Sections (F-b) I, 2 and 5 of the Uganda Public Service Standing Orders (2010) which stipulate the official working hours as being Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 12:45 pm and 2:00 pm to 5 pm; prohibit public officers from absenting themselves without approval of the supervisor and require all public officers to sign attendance registers for monitoring of attendance to duty,” said the IGG.

“In view of these findings, it is hereby recommended that you submit Ms. Jackie Seguya to Lwengo District Service Commission for retirement in public interest, in accordance with Section (F-t) of the Uganda Public Service Standing Orders (2010), since she has continued to engage in other duties during official working hours hence compromising her service to Lwengo District Local Government.”

The post Lwengo: District Lands Officer Sacked for Abuse of Office first appeared on ChimpReports.