Luweero begins staff layoffs

Luweero. The staff restructuring process for Luweero District, which started last year following recommendation from government, will be done in a phased manner due to inadequate funds, Daily Monitor has learnt.
In September last year, the district service commission embarked on the staff restructuring programme to address critical needs of staff and existing service delivery gaps.

But the exercise, which had left several positions phased out and new departments created, could not be implemented due to irregularities, lack of logistics and funds for the newly created departments and staff, according to the Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Godffrey Kuruhira.

“It is true that the restructuring exercise was conducted but it could not proceed to the implementation stage for a number of reasons, including the budgetary constraints, forcing us to opt for a phased implementation as we scrutinise the salient issues, which could have been hurriedly arrived at. This explains why we have not rolled out the programme,” Mr Kuruhira said in an interview at the weekend.

The revelation comes at a time when several civil servants, who participated in the hurried exercise, have been left in the dark about the next course of action as some expected promotions, among other changes.

Strenuous exercise
Between September and October last year, about 330 civil servants on the district pay roll lined up for more than one month exercise, which was conducted by the district service commission headed by Mr Richard Ssembajwe.
They were required to produce their original academic transcripts, appointment letters, posting instructions, confirmation letters and staff appraisal forms.

“The district service commission did its work as requested. We had a set time frame to conduct the assignment and we duly handed in our work to the office of the Chief Administrative Officer as required,” Mr Ssembajwe said.

At the end of the validation exercise, it was clear that the district was supposed to phase out, among other posts, the assistant community development officers, assistant procurement officer, forest rangers, forest guards and inspector of schools, while creating the department of trade, industry and economic development with seven officers.

Under this arrangement, the district was supposed to foot a staff budget of Shs1.3 billion for salaries.
“The ministry of Finance declined to top up our budget, citing lack of funds for purposes of topping up the salaries for the new staff structure,” Mr Kiruhira said.

“The district could not force through the process since the mother ministry in charge of finances was not prepared to meet the planned financial obligation for the new financial year 2018/2019,” he added.
He said the process could have had some irregularities and they will scrutinize every civil servant’s file to arrive at the best restructuring plan for the district.

The beneficiaries
Although a section of civil servants in Luweero are unhappy with the failed implementation of the new staff structure, majority of the parish chiefs who stood to lose their jobs because many do not meet the new academic qualification demands, are winners.
Government early this year gave the parish chiefs a grace period of two years to upgrade their respective academic qualifications.
The parish chiefs now have the opportunity to enroll for degree courses. In the new salary scale, the parish chiefs and town agents will earn Shs460,000 per month up from Shs360,000.

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