Pensions Stop Corruption

GOVERNMENT HAS announced new pension rates effective from 1 January. These pensions are now meaningful and substantial. A police constable will get 67,665/- every month from retirement at 55 years of age until the day he dies. A U-7 teacher will get 59,810/- every month and a graduate teacher 219,907/-. A medical officer will get 271,000/-. The head of the public service will get 909,336/-. Previously a police constable would get 5,170/- per month as pension; a U-7 teacher 3,985; a graduate teacher 15,983/; and the public service head 24,862/-. Corruption in Uganda is partly due to the lack of a welfare state. After people retire, they are on their own. People have had to build a house, educate their children and save by the time they are 55. This is not easy without resorting to corruption. This increase in the level of public service pensions is a dramatic improvement that should give civil servants much greater confidence that they will be able to enjoy a comfortable old age. It will be up to this government and future governments to ensure that not only are pensions easy to collect but that they are index-linked to inflation to protect their value. Confidence will gradually increase over time that these improvements in state pensions are meaningful and here to stay. This will remove a major incentive to corruption. However the private sector needs to provide the same benefits to its employees if it is also to develop long-term integrity. Government should push ahead with its plans to liberalise the pensions sector by allowing competition with the NSSF. But government should insist that all Ugandans in employment contribute to pensions scheme so that they receive monthly payments from 55 years onwards rather than a single lump sum on retirement. Ends