Rising Debt Aside, All Ugandan Civil Servants Get Pay Hike

The Ugandan government has approved an enhanced pay plan for all civil servants starting in the next financial year, the State Minister for Public Service Grace Mugasa has said. She explained that the discrepancy in pay for science and arts teachers, for example, was due to the limited wage bill for teachers' salaries under the education ministry. 

Mugasa told the Education and Sports committee that 5,400 education officers and assistant education officers have been recruited, with 2,170 already deployed and 3,230 awaiting their appointment letters and deployment. Legislators on the committee tasked the public service ministry to expedite the establishment of the Salary Review Commission.

This comes as Uganda's public debt stock is reported to have increased by 22%, according to the parliamentary committee report on the national economy and the state of indebtedness, grants, and guarantees. The report attributed the rising debt to the deliberate effort by the government to increase public investment in infrastructure in preparation for oil production and the need to finance Covid-19 expenditure.