Govt to harmonise salaries for 12 public universities

The government has allocated at least Shs61 billion to harmonise salaries of staff in 12 public universities. 
 In the April 3 Ministry of Public Service letter addressed to university secretaries in public universities, the undersecretary to the ministry’s permanent secretary, Mr Godfrey Kaima, noted that this money will be released in the next Financial Year of 2024/2025. 

 “The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to inform you that a total of Shs61, 137,083,690 has been provided in the Budget for FY2024/2025 for harmonisation of salaries for public universities…..,” Mr Kaima’s letter reads in part. 

 According to the breakdown, Makerere University Business School will receive a lion share of Shs14 billion, and followed by Makerere University with Shs12.6 billion. Muni University will receive Shs6.3 billion, Kyambogo University (Shs6b), Lira (Shs4.7b), and Busitema (Shs3.9b).
 Other universities include; Mountains of the Moon, which will get Shs3b,  Soroti University (Shs3.8b), Gulu University (Shs2.3b), Kabale University (Shs2.2b), Mbarara University of Science and Technology  (Shs1.8b) and Uganda Management Institute (Shs1.3b).

 The Kyambogo University Vice Chancellor, Prof Eli Katunguka, in an interview yesterday said the funds would facilitate recruitment of more teaching and non-teaching staff in faculties such as engineering, architecture, vocational studies, science, art and design.
 Mr Edwin Napakor, the chairperson of Makerere University Business School Academic Association, said: “The (delay) had caused us a lot of problems, especially staff failing to perform, a lot of performance is affected, the levels of motivation have been quite low”.

 “The university is deeply appreciative to the government for prioritising the welfare of our staff…..The provision is consistent with the detailed calculations of all staff members that require harmonisation. This will leave no one behind,” Makerere University’s Secretary Yusuf Kiranda told this publication yesterday in a telephone interview. 
 In the same way, the chairperson of Mountains of the moon University Academic Staff Association, Mr Peter Baranga, said the amount is sufficient to support the harmonisation of staff salaries. 
However, the chairperson of Mbarara University of Science and Technology Academic Staff Association, Dr Simon Kawuma, said the money might only benefit staff who were moved from salary scale M20 to M15 in the new HCM public service system, and a few staff in other lower ranks. 
“For academic staff in all public universities, we need at least Shs223 billion, to bridge the gap created by the non-equitable distribution of Shs50b in 2020 to only professors, associate professors and vice chancellor, deputy vice chancellors. Senior lecturer to assistant lecturer have never been enhanced to 100 percent,” he said. 
He said senior lecturers to assistant lecturers have never been enhanced to 100 percent and, therefore, appealed to the public service ministry to also consider their plight. 

Support and effort
While appearing before the Education committee at Parliament, in February, the State minister for Higher Education, Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo, asked for additional Shs89b in the next Financial Year budget 2024/2025 to support key activities, including staff salary harmonisation, staffing, infrastructure development and research, among others.

This was also supported by the Committee Chairperson, Mr John Ntamuhira and State Minister for Finance, Mr Amos Lugoloobi, who acknowledged the need to support national institutions of higher learning so as to effectively accommodate the increasing student population.
 He committed to present a report with final estimates to the committee within a month.  

In early January, the Makerere University VC, Prof Barnabas Nawangwe, appealed to the Parliament’s Committee on Education and Sports to support salary harmonisation and pro-rata salary enhancement. 
The Makerere University’s Joint Staff Associations, which include the Makerere University Academic Staff Association, Makerere Administrative Staff Association, and the National Union of Education Institutions, planned to strike over the same issue but vice chancellor pleaded to them to call it off  as the government resolves this issue.   
The financial enhancement comes a few days to April 8 industrial action ultimatum that the Joint Staff Association of Makerere University had given to the administration.

The secretary general of MUASA, Dr Jude Ssempebwa, said: “We have an assembly of the joint Staff Associations at Makerere University today (April 4) the assembly will review progress towards harmonisation of staff salaries and make resolutions on the most deserving next step.”
 
Background

The call for harmonisation of staff salaries has been a habitual thing at the universities. In 2017, the staff from Uganda’s oldest university petitioned the university council over the same, and this forced the council to institute a salary harmonisation committee in July to restructure the salary scales of staff.

The committee report indicated that the university needed Shs17.7 billion to harmonise salaries for academic staff. Of this, Shs4.3 billion for administrative staff, and Shs669m for support staff.