All Ugandan civil servants who will not be counted in an ongoing verification and validation exercise of government employees will not be paid salaries in the next financial year which begins in July 2023, the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED) has announced.
Last month, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) announced that it will conduct a head count for all civil servants in government ministries, departments and agencies, all local government, health centres staff, universities and tertiary institutions, secondary and primary schools, statutory authorities and government owned corporations as a way of cleaning up the payroll, removing ghost employees and saving billions.
In a notice issued by on this subject on April 25, the Auditor General explained that the overall objective is to establish the factors affecting the credibility and efficiency of the government of Uganda wage, pension and gratuity management processes and recommend remedial measures.”
In the last financial year alone, the mismanagement of payrolls cost government Shs80bn according to the OAG. It also emerged that at least 795 civil servants who had retired, transferred, absconded or died had been paid up to Shs1bn.
Expected to go to various validation centres in person, each civil servant is required to present his or her National ID, work ID, initial appointment letter and posting instructions, as well as letter(s) of promotion and change of names where applicable.
On Monday, Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury (PSST) Ramathan Ggoobi was verified as a bonafide public servant by Staff of the Office of the Auditor General. He emphasized that the exercise was critical for all public servants and was the only guarantee that their names will be on the Government of Uganda payroll in the next financial year.
PSST Ggoobi encouraged all civil servants to embrace the exercise, adding that he does not expect any excuses from anybody for failing to be part of this exercise. A final verification report is expected in June 2023.
He also made it clear that the Finance Ministry will use results from the verification exercise to determine how much each government entity should be allocated for purposes of paying salaries every month.
Museveni’s government has for years been paying ghost employees. Months ago, the president’s sister – who is a senior of member of the Education Service Commission (the same commission accused of selling teaching jobs to the highest bidder) – revealed that there were about 1,000 ghost teachers on the payroll. (See Details Here and There).
You can also see the current salary structure and list of most highly paid government employees Here and There.
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