Public servants to get pay rise
Public servants are set to reap big in the new financial year that starts in July. According to the national budget framework, staff in public service will get between 6% and 30% increment in salary, depending on their scale and work station.
By Samuel Sanya
Public servants are set to reap big in the new financial year that starts in July. According to the national budget framework, staff in public service will get between 6% and 30% increment in salary, depending on their scale and work station.
According to the framework, civil servants, between salary scales U7 and U8 (including primary school teachers), will get a 15% increment, those between salary scales U6 to U4 will get 8% and those in U3 to U1, 6%. University lecturers will get 10%.
Science teachers in universities and post primary institutions will get 30% increment. However, a budget framework is a proposal, subject to change as the budget process continues.
The document notes that despite pleas for additional funding to facilitate recruitment in the next financial year, resource constraints will not allow for this. Instead, salary enhancement will be the priority area, meaning that there will be no room for additional recruitment in all sectors, including under the local governments.
Public servants in hard-to-reach and hard-to-live areas will also get a 30% hardship allowance. The budget framework notes that these workers have until recently started to get this allowance and, already, staff numbers in hard-to-reach areas are growing to 19,754 in 2012 from 14,000 and 5,754 in the previous years.
Starting in the next financial year, all outstanding salary arrears will be budgeted and paid for under the Ministry of Public Service. Accounting officers will be required to confirm the audited arrears lists before payment.
Samuel Mukasa, the chairman of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) at Sir Apollo Kaggwa Secondary School in Mukono, welcomed the development, saying teachers had not been motivated enough.
“As a result of low pay, some of them are not teaching well, and cases of absenteeism have gone up,” he said.
Uganda has been suffering the effects of brain drain as teachers and scientists leave the country to take up opportunities in the US and Europe.
A 2007 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report indicated that one in every five Ugandans who finished tertiary education left for greener pastures due to limited employment possibilities, poor working conditions and weak career paths.
According to the budget framework, sh290b has been allocated to enhance public servants salaries in a phased manner, with emphasis on teachers and scientists.