Uganda: Cabinet Approves Salary Increase for Civil Servants

1 Cabinet has approved an enhanced compensation plan for all civil servants which will come into effect in the next fiscal year.

2 The Minister of State for the Public Service, the Hon. Grace Mugasa, made the revelation, without giving further details, during a meeting with the Education and Sport Committee on Tuesday 06 September 2022 in Parliament.

3 Interacting with the committee, Mugasa explained that the pay gap for science and arts teachers, for example, was due to the limited payroll of teacher salaries under the Ministry of Education and Sports.

4 The Minister said that the Ministry of Public Administration has approved the structures of the Ministry of Education, adding that the hiring and payment of the salaries of the structures entirely depends on the payroll.

5 “Every year the MDAs and local authorities present their analysis of the payroll.

6 You can have a wish, but if the Ministry of Finance does not give you the money, you cannot hire all the positions you want,” the minister said.

seven “We do not intend to create disparities.

8 If we had had the resources to pay, we would have paid everyone the same amount of money.

9 But we are doing it in stages,” Mugasa said.

ten In the recent past, Tororo District MP, Hon. Sarah Opendi, tabled a motion in Parliament on tuition fees and other exorbitant fees charged by government-subsidized schools.

11 In one of the sentences, Opendi demanded in parliament that the government allocate enough teaching and non-teaching staff to government-subsidized schools and pay their salaries and wages.

12 Mugasa, while answering some of the prayers of the Opendi petition, told the committee that 5,400 education officers and deputy education officers had been recruited, with 2,170 already deployed and 3,230 awaiting issuance. appointment and deployment letters.

13 She added that 1,700 officers were promoted to education officer, 160 to senior education officer, 120 to director and 120 to deputy director.

14 “Despite the wage bill limits, the government is committed to filling all vacancies in primary and secondary schools,” the minister added.

15 Lawmakers on the committee instructed the Ministry of Civil Service to expedite the establishment of the Salary Review Commission.

16 Hon. Jonathan Ebwalu (Indep., Soroti West Division) hinted at Minister Mugasa’s commitment to the Public Accounts Committee that a committee would be set up to investigate pay disparities in the country.

17 “These are questions that need answers.

18 Some of our teachers are choosing to drop out of classes and put on bodabodas because of pay disparities.

19 Education in this country does not look good,” Ebwalu said.

20 The minister assured the committee that members of the Salary Review would soon be appointed to enable it to begin its work.

21 Honorable Lilian Paparu (NRGArua district) expressed concern for teachers who have been sent to school but are not receiving their salaries.

22 “Some of them go nine years or more without receiving their salary.

23 It is the teachers who are frustrated and sometimes do not come to class, but it is the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Administration to put them on the payroll,” Paparu said.

24 In response, the minister said, “We want to promise that if the finance ministry takes advantage of the money, we as [Ministry of] The civil service is ready to put teachers on the payroll.