Buganda government reduces wage bill by 35%

Aug 12, 2003

The Kabaka’s government has reduced its wage bill by 35% after it laid off 40 workers to reduce accumulated salary arrears.

By Josephine Maseruka
The Kabaka’s government has reduced its wage bill by 35% after it laid off 40 workers to reduce accumulated salary arrears.

A source in Mengo yesterday said about sh54m was used to pay off the seven-month salary arrears for the laid off workers who were politely told to ‘go on temporary’ leave.

“ We needed these people but we could not pay them so we decided to send them off,” the source who preferred anonymity said.

The kingdom finance minister, Eng. J.B. Walusimbi, recently said the Mengo government had 170 workers and by June, it had accumulated sh350m as salary arrears for seven months.

He said the retrenched workers had all been paid from the Kingdom Treasury. Walusimbi said the kingdom had raised sh270m in three years from the sale of the kingdom development certificates.

He said the money was short of the targeted sh1b to run the kingdom.

Walusimbi said Mengo was constrained by its limited tax base since it did not levy tax.

He said Mengo’s main source of income was the lease of the kingdom assets, markets as well as the revenue from the sale of certificates.

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