It has come to light that enumerators from last year’s census are still owed over UGX 200 million by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) for their work. This revelation was made by UBOS officials during a meeting with the leader of Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi and other MPs.
Opposition MPs, led by Joel Ssenyonyi, made an oversight visit to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics to scrutinize the entity’s operations. However, they were shocked when the Executive Director Dr. Chris Mukiza, and the deputy snubbed the long-awaited meeting, yet previous schedules were canceled to accommodate the officials’ attendance.
James Muwonge, Director of Methodology and Statistical Coordination Services at UBOS, chaired the meeting where MPs expressed concerns about last year’s census results, citing discrepancies in population numbers.
They also raised issues about delayed payments to some census employees, alleging that many in their constituencies were still owed money.
UBOS responded that over 90% of the enumerators and other 2024 census staff had been paid, with the remaining individuals facing issues of discrepancies of names on their phone numbers.
Additionally, UBOS claims that some local governments had canceled the names of some individuals who were supposed to be paid, hindering UBOS’s ability to complete the payment process.
UBOS Chief Finance Officer Florence Obiro revealed that UBOS lost UGX 1.2 billion in the last fiscal year, which was returned to the consolidated fund at the end of the fiscal year before paying the claimants.
UBOS has requested MPs’ cooperation to identify individuals still owed money, emphasizing that funds are available.
The census, conducted from May 10 to 19 last year, cost over UGX 328 billion but has been marred by controversy.
