Amanya Mushega announces big increase in pensions

GOVERNMENT yesterday announced increases in pensions for retired civil servants and salary increases for medical staff, reports Hamis Kaheru. The pension will be paid monthly from retirement at 55 years until the time of death and the new rates are effective from January 1. Public service minister Amanya Mushega told a news conference in Kampala that pension for a Police Constable has been increased from sh5,170 to sh67,785, while that of a teacher in U-7 salary scale is up from 3,985 to sh59,810. A graduate teacher now gets 219,907 up from sh15,983. The monthly pay for a retired head of Public Service has also been increased to sh909,336 from 24,862. Medical officer's (U5a-3) rose to sh271,000 from 28,000, and that of Nursing Officer (U6) is sh94,479 up from 16,686. Mushega said over 7,000 former employees of the defunct East African Community (EAC) will be paid all their claims this financial year. Mushega said sh15.8b had been paid out to settle claims for 5,170 EAC pensioners and another sh25b out of a total of sh45b is to be paid out this year. All EAC pensioners with claims totalling sh10m and those aged 75 years and above but claiming more than sh10m will be paid their full benefits this financial year. The rest will be paid next year. Mushega also announced increase of salaries for medics in the U1-U7 scale. A medical officer's monthly salary has been increased from sh328,021 to 534,675 and that of a registered nurse from 201,166 to 210,655. Mushega said the raise was a result of the Public Service Reform Programme that reduced the number of public employees from 320,000 in 1992 to 186,537 in 2000. "Our vision is to maintain a well-motivated, remunerated and professional public service that is efficient, effective and delivers quality services," he said. Mushega said in the 1990/91 financial year, a primary school teacher's salary was sh3,215 and is now sh91,529. Over the same period, he said, a registered nurse's salary was raised from sh3,449 to sh205,293, a doctor's from sh6,206 to sh328,021 and a permanent secretary's from sh15,000 to sh1,794,742. Mushega said workers in the medical profession were given priority in the latest pay raise because a job evaluation ranked them highest in terms of pay and performance. "These people (medics) are closest to the poor population. If they don't work, people don't go to their gardens because they are sick and they will have no coffee to sell," he said. He said the health sector was more affected by inability to retain staff because of poor pay. Mushega said improvements in pay will be extended to other sectors especially the police and teachers as resources become available. "The Police and teachers are very critical in the stability of the country and in improving efficiency," he said. Ends.