Police officers get half salary after payroll error

Kampala. There is confusion after some police officers received half salary while others had their pay doubled in November following what authorities attributed to a systems failure.
Several police officers, mostly those who got less than they are entitled to, flocked police headquarters and regional centres across the country with a litany of questions.
One junior police officer said he received around Shs300,000 yet his monthly pay is more than Shs700,000.

“Many of my colleagues have complained about the deduction. We don’t know why our salaries were deduced,” he said.
The deputy police spokesperson, Mr Patrick Onyango, said the problem was with the computers and it was being rectified.
“It is true that some officers got half the salary they are entitled to while others received more than they are supposed to get. There shouldn’t be panic. The police administration is harmonising everything,” Mr Onyango said.

Another police commander said he had been overwhelmed by complaints from his subordinates about salary deductions. The commander said he had forwarded the complaints to the police headquarters, but was yet to receive any response.
Mr Onyango said the technical personnel were cleaning up the payroll when they created a mistake that caused the problems.
“The technical people were trying to correct a minor issue but they ended up creating more problems. The error is being corrected. Next month, things will be okay,” he said.

Mr Onyango added that those who got more money than they are supposed to get would get less next month.
He, however, could not tell the total number of officers affected, saying he needed to ask the technical personnel.
The anomaly is not happening for the first time. In 2016, it took more than three months to correct the error when computerised payment was first introduced.

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