Civil servants will receive their July salaries around August 5, 2022, according to the Ministry of Public Service Finance. By law, all civil services salaries and wages are supposed to be paid on or before the 28th day of every month.
“All accounting officers must ensure that they pay wages, salaries, pensions, and gratuities by the 28th day of every month,” Ggoobi told the media a week ago while announcing the release for the first quarter.
Shillings 1.6trillion of the Shillings 4.6 trillion released was for wages. However, as the due date approached, the accounting officers in ministries, departments, agencies, and local governments noted that they did not have the new payroll from the ministry.
Several accounting officers issued notices communicating the delayed payment. Some relief came late on Tuesday when the Ministry of Public Service announced that the delay would last about one week after July 28. “At the beginning of every Financial Year, this Ministry issues a salary structure as a framework that guides the Service on the amount of salary to be paid to be paid to each category of Public Officers in that Financial Year, ” the ministry explained in a brief statement.
The statement signed by the permanent secretary, Catherine Bitarakwate, says that the issuance of the salary structure for the financial year 2022/23 has been delayed, affecting the timelines for processing and payment of July salaries. She says, however, that the salary structure has been completed and the processing of the salary payroll commenced.
The PS said that the timeline for payment of the salary will now be about 5th August 2022, appealing to lenders not to penalize those with loans over delayed repayments.
“By copy of this letter, Commercial Banks and other Financial Institutions are informed accordingly and requested to waive penalties on late loan repayments by the public officers,” says the statement copied to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Finance, the President’s Office and the financial institutions.
While the ministry of finance announced the release of funds over a week ago, the delay to explain the situation was causing confusion among the civil servants, according to trade union leaders. “The new salary structure is being uploaded on the IPPS system to automatically update the enhanced salaries, then the payroll will be reverted to different local government votes to process and pay salaries for July 2022,” said Vincent Elong, the Chairperson of Uganda Professional Science Teachers Union.
He said he also received assurances that scientists and science teacher will be paid their new enhanced salaries. “Our salary was enhanced already to the tune of 4m and 3m and it was reflected in the national budget 2022/23. The Ministry of Finance released all the funds to effect the enhancement. Just relax and wait for the July pay,” said Elong, who is also a member of the science teachers’ salaried negotiations team.
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