Government has announced a major salary increment to almost all public servants in the country.
Prior to the announcement a number of public servants including judges, doctors, nurses and prosecutors have laid down tools on a number of occasions.
On Monday afternoon, the minister for public service Muruli Mukasa told journalists that a special cabinet sitting on December 9th chaired by president Museveni agreed to have a salary increment to a number of public servants.
“The meeting agreed to have the defence, judiciary, health, education, police and intelligence officers have their salaries increased in the first phase,”Muruli Mukasa told journalists.
He said this has been done to cater for the increasing cost of living in the country, strategic priorities, commitments, ongoing programs and long term sustainability adding that it would be implemented during the financial year that starts in July 2018.
The security minister Lt.Gen. Henry Tumukunde said the process has been on since 2015 with alot of calculations being done to make the increment feasible..
“Ugandans should not worry on whether we shall sustain it because it is something we have looked into,”Tumukunde said.
The state minister for Finance David Bahati said cabinet is now in the budgeting process before tabling it before parliament.
The Internal Security Organisation last week released a report in which it detailed expenditure by government and its agencies that has led to wasteful usage of huge sums of money.
Mukasa however noted that government has now embarked on cost saving measures including a review of the entire budget framework to rationalise budgets for ministries, departments and agencies.
“The ministries public service and finance were directed to fine tune the actual salary figures by the end of December 2017,”he added.
Among those to have their salaries increased include; primary teachers, secondary school science teachers, local government leaders, UPDF soldiers from ranks of private to sergeant and policemen from ranks of constable to sergeant.
Other public servants to be considered in the first phase of salary increment are prisons staff from warders to sergeant level, security officers at junior intelligence level, all health workers, all judicial workers and all scientists in the entire public service.
