PRESIDENT MUSEVENI AND THE NRM GOVERNMENT CAN STOP THE PARADOX OF THE VICIOUS CYCLE OF DEMANDS FOR SALARY INCREASE BY VARIOUS CATEGORIES OF PUBLIC SERVANTS.
By William Kituuka Kiwanuka
Those of us who are over 50 years never used to witness what we are seeing today where disgruntled Civil Servants or employees of Government had to go to have their issues handled by the Head of State. Today, it is the norm and it is unfortunate. Ugandans seem to see President Museveni in the lens of someone really concerned about them and other Senior Government officers who would solve their problems as unconcerned. This is where the problem in Uganda starts and when some category realize that some group got the President’s attention and eventual action, they get into a similar cycle and it turns to a vicious circle of demand for better pay with the President having the key. This is wrong.
Before the NRM Government got into office, salaries were well thought out and determined according to what the country’s resources stood as. It really surprises the discrepancies in salaries in Uganda. When Authorities came into being, many wanted to be staff in the Authorities because of the salary and benefits’ differences. Talk of someone in Uganda National Road Authority (UNRA) compared to that in the Ministry of Works when they have similar qualifications and working experience!
Many are surprised to see what the Members of Parliament earn or take home at the end of the month compared to the Chairpersons of Districts, who have wider area coverage and more demanding roles / duties.
Against the above background, various categories of Government employees have found using the strike as the way to get to the bargaining table for better pay. In the process we are having a cycle of Government employees striking at different times, and nearly every two months now, there is some salary issue that gets the President involved!
The President is micro managing what the Ministry of Public Service as well as that of Finance should be able to resolve under the normal working of Government. In the process of micro managing, the President meets a category of employees say those in the Health sector. Much as he is the de facto Minister of Finance, he ends up making pledges for higher pay to those who present their case to him. In effect, the Ministry of Public Service together with that of Finance find themselves in a fix. The public service know categories of workers that should be in similar salary category, and the Ministry of Finance finds itself in a tricky situation of having to look for funds to bridge the gap given the Presidential directives on higher pay!
The solution to the problem
The President should get out of sorting the salary issues for Government workers. The Ministry of Public Service should take the responsibility of streamlining all salaries for Government workers. Once this is done, Government should embrace the salaries and the President should leave the Ministry to handle that matter.
The President is concerned about about less than 1 million people who the Government employs and are on its payroll, but then what about the over 17 million Ugandans who should be in employment and have to find their level in self employment or being employed in the private sector?
Currently, Government wants to pay about shs 4 million to Science teachers in Government Schools or those schools that are Aided by Government, however, statistics are such that the private sector schools have more teachers and students. If a teacher in a private school gets shs 500,000 a month or less, and one with similar qualifications but in Government earns Shs 4,000,000 how can Government be proud of that achievement when the education private sector is simply helping Government which should have the monopoly of educating Ugandans at primary and secondary school levels?
The NRM Government is actually failing the private sector that should substantially contribute to the employment of many Ugandans some of whom opt for odd jobs in the Arab world though they are properly academically qualified.
I will use my case in this illustration. We have a banking sector in Uganda that has been infiltrated by the mafia! We are all aware that Uganda is a poor country categorized among the least developed countries in the world. Given that situation, Ugandans including myself have taken time to think out means of attracting the scarce resources to the highly impoverished Uganda. It is unbelievable but true that we have a well developed syndicate through which rightful owners of funds remitted through the Uganda banking sector end up with a raw deal when they are unable to access such funds!
I write from experience. It is 12 years in 2022 since I started fundraising from outside Uganda. The billions I raised are nowhere to be seen! The monies I have raised have been taken fraudulently, where the banks I used: Cairo International Bank and the then Barclays Bank all in Uganda were at liberty to tell me how I had not raised money at all. Instead the monies were shared by the connected!
For a number of years now, I have made appeals to Government Ministries more so Finance and Bank of Uganda so that I am helped to recover the stolen monies, but nobody in Government has ever responded to my appeals at least showing commitment to me that they are working on my issue. Meanwhile, the NRM Government is day and night looking for investors when the people with the heart and commitment to develop the country look on as resources they mobilize are simply stolen locally! What a sad story: “CRY MY BELOVED UGANDA”.
In the 1970’s I used to get a taxi anytime I got to Mityana traveling to Namutamba mostly from secondary school. Now days, one gets to Mityana and has to get a boda boda (commercial motor cyclist) ride for 13 miles at shs 10,000! Meanwhile, I have got to Uganda money that can completely change the lives of people in Namutamba parish, but the good NRM Government is not showing me any commitment that I recover funds raised using my brain! This is a sad story, but real.
It does not make sense to imagine that we raise money to fight Government. I for one, I don’t even slaughter chicken. This approach is simply by people who want to use that as excuse to steal our money. Why is the NRM Government not committed to seeing that Commercial Banks do justice to us? How can the banking sector be so untrustworthy? The people in Namutamba are suffering simply because some connected people in the NRM Government are part of a syndicate through which the money we raise is stolen. Every other day (the Namutamba residents) look to a savior, but what can we do when the funds raised are stolen by those who believe that they are entitled?
The NRM Government cannot keep talking big about the salary increases it makes to Government employees who do not even make a million people, meanwhile, those of us ready to help Ugandans get better returns from their work are simply having the resources we raise stolen.
12 years since I started raising money to help Namutamba Parish, the money has since been stolen and while my fundraising efforts are continuing, there is no money I am able to access!
Mr. President, however much you pay the less than 1 million Government employees, those billions will not impact the lives of Ugandans and make them less poor. It is monies like what I have raised since 2010 which were better planned for to boost the private sector that can help majority of Ugandans to get out of poverty when scaled out. Unfortunately, only God knows where the monies are!
I will never trust Uganda’s leaders that they commit our country to God when we look for funds the hard way to help the impoverished and some connected people in Government are at liberty to share the money with no Government department committed to save the situation!
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