The Uganda Police Force (UPF) will annually incur Shillings 2.3 billion extra to cater for salary enhancement of the 773 promoted officers. The commander in chief of armed forces and head of state, Yoweri Museveni, last week promoted police officers after a six years’ promotion spell.
The promoted officers include five promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP), nine promoted to Senior Commissioner of Police (SCP), 33 promoted to Commissioner of Police (CP), 70 promoted to Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), 137 promoted to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), 215 promoted to Superintendent of Police (SP) and 173 promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).
Although the police director for human resource, Brig Gen Jesse Kamunanwire and his deputy SCP Geoffrey Musana, have remained cagey on extra costs that will be needed to cater for the new ranks, a senior police source has revealed that the force has already computed that it will need more than Shillings2.3Billion to cater the wages that come with rank elevations.
For instance, the five AIGPs will each have their salary increased from 2.5million Shilling earned by SCPs to 2.9million Shillings. This means police will need 2.4million Shillings extra every month to pay the salary of new AIGPs.
The nine CPs promoted to SCP will have each of their salary increased by a paltry of Shillings 100,000 totaling to Shillings 900,000 every month. The 34 ACP promoted to CP will have their salary increased from Shillings 1.8million to Shillings2.4million. Thus police will be incurring Shillings19.8million months to pay salary enhancements of the new CPs.
“An SSP earns Shillings1.25million every month. But since these 137 have been promoted to the rank of ACP, their salary must rise from Shillings1.25million to Shillings1.8million, so we will need Shillings41.1m extra every month,” a senior police officer said.
The salary for 215 ASPs promoted to the rank of SP will be increased from 980,000 Shillings to 1.25million. This translates to 51.6million Shillings extra every month while the 173 police officers who have been promoted from the rank of Inspector of Police-IP to the rank of ASP which puts them into the senior officer category will have their salary increased from 540,000 Shillings to 740,000 Shillings totaling to 34.6million Shillings extra every month.
But the promotions have come at a time when some police officers claim their salaries for June and July have not been paid. Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, the minister for internal affairs which superintends over the police force joked that he was suspecting that the government was withholding salaries perhaps to control inflation.
Otafiire said he too he had not been paid but that money is being withheld to control money circulation. According to Otafiire, it would not make sense to pay someone money which could hardly buy valuable items because of inflation.
But Brig Gen Kamunanwire admits that the new promotions come with elevation in everything starting from office, salaries, expectations and responsibilities. According to Brig Gen Kamunanwire, the promotion is not just a mere change of decoration.
However, the new salary changes will also depend on the kind of qualification one has in terms of professionalism. For instance, Sergeants who serve in the directorate of police medical service earn 800,000 Shillings which is higher than ordinary ASPs. An IP who holds a diploma in science related course earns 2.2 million Shillings which is almost equal to the 2.4million Shillings bagged by CPs.
With the recent salary enhancements for scientists, ASPs serving in ICT who have been earning 2.2million Shillings are now earning 4.2million Shillings , engineers at the rank of ASP have started earning 4.7million.
In nutshell, scientists in the police force almost earn double the salaries of officers attaining the highest rank of police force which is AIGP. However, the AIGPs, SCPs, CPs and ACP who are majorly administrators who have elevated allowances which enable them earn salaries slight equivalent to scientists.
Also earnings of senior police officers are low compared to their counterparts in the army whose salary was increased from 2.8millionShillings for a General to about 15million Shillings which is equivalent to the rank of AIGP in police force.
-URN
