Teachers camp at bank over salary deductions
Some of the affected teachers speak to journalists at Crane Bank in Iganga last Wednesday. PHOTO BY YAZID YOLISIGIRA.
What you need to know:
The teachers claim Crane Bank is making double deductions from their salaries to repay their loans.
Jinja
At least 20 teachers in Iganga Municipality pitched camp at Crane Bank Iganga Branch premises to protest against -what they termed “double deduction” of money from their monthly salaries to repay loans.
The teachers told journalists last Wednesday that since July, the bank has been effecting double deductions.
According to the new financial guidelines by the Public Service ministry, the municipality personnel officer sends teachers’ salaries to Payment Solution Unit (PSU), which deducts money for clearing loans on behalf of banks before sending the balance to the accounts of teachers.
The teachers, however, claim that even after the PSU has deducted money from their salaries, the bank has gone on to make further deductions without giving any logical explanations. “I get Shs330,000 as monthly salary and after deducting Shs180,000 for covering the loan, I expect a balance of Shs150,000, but for the last two months, I have not been finding this money on the account,” Ms Florence Tyogo, a teacher at Kasokoso Primary School in Iganga Municipality, said.
But, the branch manager Crane Bank Iganga, Mr Sachin K, denied any wrongdoing on the part of the bank and attributed the mess to the PSU.
“The problem is at the municipality because since April when the system changed, there have been delays in sending the salaries to PSU. The only way we could have made any deductions would have been by way of penalties for delayed servicing of the loans,” Mr Sachin told reporters at his offices.
