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Luwero, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Teachers in Luwero District’s secondary schools and tertiary institutions will have to wait another month to receive their February and March 2024 pay.
Asaba Innocent Birekeyaho, the Luwero District Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), has communicated the uncomfortable news to the affected officers.
Teachers have not received their paychecks for the past two months due to a wage gap in the budget. According to CAO Asaba, the district authorities requested an extra budget from the Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development.
He says they urged the line ministry to provide the District with an additional expenditure funding limit to cover the months of February and March 2024.
In a letter dated April 2, 2024, CAO Asaba informs all Head Teachers and Staff of Secondary and Tertiary Institutions that they expect increased funds this week as promised by the Ministry. Although the requested monies are due this week, CAO Asaba has stated that affected employees would receive their salaries for both the months of February and March by April 28.
He also states that the month of April will be paid on the same date.
In the same circular, which was copied to the Luwero Resident District Commissioner (RDC), the Luwero District Local Council V chairperson, and the Luwero District Education Officer (DEO), CAO Asaba reveals that steps have been taken to ensure that the budget for the Financial Year 2024/2025 is adequate for teachers in secondary schools and tertiary institutions in order to avoid the recurrence of delayed salary payments to teachers.
Salary delays continue to be an issue in the Greater Luwero region.
For example in April of last year (2023), Luwero district authorities asked banks to be compassionate with civil servants who were struggling to service their loans due to salary payment delays.
Martin Paul Yiga, the then District Chief Administrative Officer, wrote a letter to the managers of Stanbic, Dfcu, Centenary, Equity, and Post banks, as well as microfinance lending companies operating in Luwero, on April 17. The letter was also copied to the Luwero district’s main human resources official.
Yiga stated that employees with loan arrears, such as teachers, health workers, and Production department staff, were yet to be paid and should not be treated with hostility while they were pressured to repay the loans.
Similarly, in December of last year (2023), officials in Luwero and its neighboring Nakaseke district reported that they were unable to pay staff salaries ahead of the festive season due to recurring financial deficits.
According to the ministry of Finance’s second quarter releases, affected staff in Nakaseke were warned to expect a delay in salary payment for the month of December due to a payroll shortage of Shs 1.3 billion.
Luwero district chairman Erasto Kibirango stated that their wage bill jumped to Shs 53.4 billion as a result of salary increases for science teachers, despite the district’s original budget of Shs 43.1 billion.
He noted that despite receiving some more releases, the monies were insufficient to cover the entire staff. They had a Shs 1.6 billion shortage, which had to be offset by the Ministry of Finance in order to pay all employees.
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