The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A group of 54 police officers with a science background are disgruntled over what they term as discriminatory salaries.
The officers, at a rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASPs), trained in different science fields and were appointed as science cadres by the Public Service Ministry. At the time of their appointment, in August 2015, the officers were receiving a gross pay of 1.08 million shillings.
The appointment letters signed by former Ministry of Internal Affairs Permanent Secretary, Dr Stephen Kagoda put them under the U4 (Science) salary scale which would give them a pay ranging from 13.5 to 14.1 million shillings per annum. But the pay given to them was slightly less than the scale.
In 2018, following a presidential directive enhancing salaries of all scientists, the officers’ salaries were raised to shillings 2.2 million. But this was paid to them for only five months, from July 2018 to November 2018. Then, their payments reverted to a monthly pay of 640,000 per month.
“Majority of us are living a miserable life because we had taken loans which we acquired at the salary scales. We were shocked when our salaries were chopped even after acquiring letters of loan-undertaking from the same offices that chopped salaries,” one of the affected officers said in an interview.
He adds that although there are more scientists in the force, not all of them were affected by the salary cuts. He says that informal communications showed that the affected group is not employed under the professional units.
However, Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga says the salary disparity arises out of the advice of the Ministry of Public Service to pay professional allowances only to those professionals deployed in the line units. He asked the affected officers to petition the police administration.
Enanga argues that officers with a science background who were recruited as general duty officers cannot claim to be paid as scientists unless they upgrade to the said level.
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