No money to increase MPs’ salaries - government

What you need to know:

  • Unfair. Finance ministry says it would be unfair to increase MPs’ salaries and leave out low earners such as soldiers and teachers.

Kampala.

The Ministry of Finance has described the proposal by Parliament to double MPs’ salaries as absurd and added the pay raise would force government to borrow in order to pay the wages.
The Ministry’s Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, told Daily Monitor yesterday that they had not received the proposed double increment of monthly salaries for MPs from Shs11m currently to Shs24m but said government does not have the money to increase their wages.
“We have not seen the proposal. However, if anybody is proposing it, it is absolutely absurd. We do not have that money. Having that increment means we have to borrow Shs90 billion,” he said.
Mr Muhakanizi also said it would be unfair to increase MPs’ salaries and leave out low earners.
“We should first handle the lower cadres like soldiers, police and teachers,” he reasoned.
A leaked supplementary request that Daily Monitor has seen indicates that Parliament wants an additional Shs90b to cater for salaries of 452 MPs at Shs24m every month.
The projected budget of the Parliamentary Commission for 2018/19 is Shs459b and Shs86.9b will be for salaries of MPs and Parliament staff.
The executive director of Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group, Mr Julius Mukunda, described the proposed salary raise as a disgrace.
“It is a wrong idea and it’s wrong for the economy. Parliament does not have the moral authority to increase their salary before think about low earners. They are a disgrace to this country,” Mr Mukunda said.
Various categories of public servants have been engaged in protracted negotiations with the government, demanding salary increment.
Teachers, medical workers, prosecutors and university lecturers have severally gone on strike demanding salary raise.
The latest ultimatum to government by the workers under National Organisation of Trade Unions was issued in March when they threatened to resume industrial action if their demands on salary increment were not catered for in the next financial year.
Under the Salary Review, government has increased salaries of selected public servants but by varying proportions, triggering more grumbling among those who missed out.
However, the Speaker, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, told MPs in Parliament yesterday that there would be no increment in their basic salary.
“I am the chairperson of the Parliamentary Commission. The budget process started in March. Everything has been clear. There has been no attempt to increase the salaries of MPs. I want to invite the public to just ignore the story. It is not true,” Ms Kadaga said yesterday.
Ms Kadaga spoke after Dokolo North MP Paul Amoru reported that he had been inundated with inquiries from his constituents demanding an explanation about the salary increment.
On top of monthly salary of Shs11m, every MP gets subsistence allowance of Shs4.5m, town running allowance (Shs1m), gratuity (Shs1m), medical allowance (Shs500,000), committee sitting allowance (Shs50,000), plenary sitting allowance (150,000), as well as mileage allowance from Parliament to the furthest point of an individual MP’s constituency.
If the proposed increment is effected, it will shoot up the annual wage bill of Parliament only on MPs’ basic salary by 218 per cent from the current Shs39 billion to a staggering Shs129 billion.