Police to spend UGX 3B annually on newly promoted officers

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Police’s wage will increase by nearly Three Billion Shillings after the promotion of 3,097 lower rank police officers.

The Inspector-General of Police Martin Ochola, a few days ago, promoted police personnel to four junior ranks that include Corporal, Sergeant, Assistant Inspector of Police and Inspector of Police. 

It had taken five years since police last promoted senior and junior officers during the times of former IGP Gen Edward Kale Kayihura. Ochola’s latest promotions include 1,099 Police Constables promoted to the rank of Sergeant, 404 Sergeants promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector of Police while 336 Assistant Inspectors of Police were elevated to Inspector of Police rank.

But the new promotions have increased police’s wage bill by close to 3 billion shillings. Uganda Radio Network –URN understands that out of 336 Inspectors of Polices, 70 of them are in a professional category such as medical workers, IT, electricians, building and mechanical engineers.

Whereas an ordinary Inspector of Police earns about 600,000 per month, professionals earn between 1.2 Million to 1.4 Million shillings. This means police will need more than 30 million shillings every month to cater for Ordinary and professional Inspector of Police thus totalling 360 Million Shillings per year.

The professional Assistant Inspectors of Police earn between 1 million and 1.2 million shillings every month while Ordinary Assistant Inspectors of Police earn about 550,000 shillings per month. Out of 404 promoted Assistant Inspectors of Police, 100 are said to be in the category of professionals thus police will need 40 Million Shillings extra per month totalling 480 Million Shillings every year.

Out of 1,099 Sgts, 250 are professionals who earn not less than 800,000 per month. Thus police force will be spending 120 Million Shillings extra per month for both professionals and Ordinary Sgts amounting to 1.4 billion shillings per year.

In nutshell, 420 out of 3,097 newly promoted officers are professionals who are also entitled to 66000 monthly allowances. This means the police force will be spending 27.7m shillings on professionals’ allowances making it 336 million shillings per year.

It has emerged that some of the newly promoted police personnel have already expressed concern over huge salary disparities. It is reported that some Inspectors of Police cannot believe that Sergeants will be earning more than them.

“We have signed a petition being made by some of these police officers which they intend to submit to IGP about salary discrepancies. We have told them to abandon the idea but they insist on taking it forward,” a senior policeman said.  

Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga, has revealed that some police officers had already expressed concern about their salaries and they are engaging journalists. But he believes that it was out of lack of information about what makes some officers who are of lower ranks earn more than seniors.

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URN