Public Service considering pay rise for secretaries

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Service, Catherine Bitarakwate Musingwiire has promised salary enhancement to all secretaries and administrative professionals working under public service.

This was in her speech delivered by Dr. Steven Opio Okiror the Ministry commissioner, Human Resource Planning and Development at the annual Secretaries’ workshop and training organised by the Association of Secretaries and Administrative Professionals in Uganda (ASAPU).

The workshop which was organised in commemoration of the annual Administrative Professionals Week(APW)  was organised under the theme: “The indispensable secretary/admin–elevating your professional presence”.

Bitarakwate  said that she is aware that secretaries face a number of challenges of which the most prominent is the poor remuneration especially in the public sector.

“As the ministry responsible for compensation in the public sector, I would like to reaffirm our commitment to the pay enhancement strategy and give assurance that the secretaries among others will ultimately be considered. The current limitation is due to the economic challenges faced by the country,” she  noted.

The PS said that as a way of further handling the challenges faced by secretaries, the ministry has reconstituted the Professional Development Committee (PDC) of the Secretarial Cadre which was inducted and officially inaugurated.

“Let me urge the members of the committee to ensure that they perform their functions effectively and network widely with the professional associations. On a positive I would like to inform the participants that the Secretarial PDC has been commended as the most active and effective PDC in the entire Public service in the last three years,” Bitarakwate noted.

She added that her ministry has also conducted a baseline survey on professionalization of all cadres in the public service and has developed a framework and strategy adding that the implementation of the strategy has commenced.

The ASAPU president, Julius Ssemaganda said that he is certain that with the commitment from the Ministry of Public Service, their dream of having their salaries enhanced will soon be realized.

Ssemaganda said that with the current economic hardships in the country, secretaries who earn as low as Shs400,000 are finding it hard to survive in the high cost of living economy.

“These low salaries of Shs400,000  for U5 and  Shs560,000 for U4 secretaries in public service have left us unable to take care of our families. We can’t take our children to relatively good schools and worst of all we can’t even access better loans from financial institutions. We also call for uniform consolidated allowances across all Public Service,” Ssemaganda said.

Ssemaganda appealed to the PS to take it upon herself to ensure that secretaries are promoted as provided for in the public service standing orders.

“A number of our members have upgraded to the level of Masters Degree but they are not promoted; the Ministry should make sure that secretaries that have worked for more than three years are promoted as it is in the standing orders after subjecting them to interviews,” Ssemaganda noted.

Ssemaganda urged the public to always recruit trained secretaries and administrators to avoid unnecessary mishandling of their offices adding that these professionals know how to deal with whichever administrative challenges that may arise at the work place.

“In a special way, we thank our respective employers for their financial support which enable us to participate in ASAPU activities like workshops and annual general meetings,” Ssemaganda noted.