Delayed salaries: Luwero district pleads to banks to be lenient to civil servants

Luwero district authorities have written to banks to be lenient to civil servants who are struggling to service their loans due to salary payment delays.

The district chief administrative officer Martin Paul Yiga authored a letter dated April 17 to the managers of Stanbic, dfcu, Centenary, Equity and Post banks and microfinance lending institutions operating in Luwero. The letter was also copied to the Luwero district principal human resource officer.

Yiga states that employees with loan arrears, including teachers, health workers, and staff in the production department are yet to receive their pay, and should not act with hostility as they pressure them to clear the loans. 

“We regret the delay of salary payments to staff due to the budget adjustments process for the additional funds we received on the payment system,” Luwero district principal human resource officer Bernard Okello said.

He further states that actual payments are expected next week due to the steps involved in processing payments. The district is committed to clearing all arrears, including putting an end to the challenge of a delayed payment of salaries to staff, according to Okello.

In December last year, officials in Luwero and its neighbouring Nakaseke district announced that they were unable to pay staff salaries ahead of the festive season due to persistent budget shortfalls. In Nakaseke, affected staff were put on notice to anticipate a delay in the payment of salaries for the month of December after the district had a wage shortfall of Shs 1.3 billion according to the second quarter releases made by the ministry of Finance.

Luwero district chairman Erastus Kibirango said that their wage bill increased to Shs 53.4 billion after the enhancement of salaries for science teachers, yet the district had planned for Shs 43.1 billion.

He added that although they received some additional releases, the funds were not enough to pay for all the staff. Okello said they had a shortfall of Shs 1.6 billion which the ministry of Finance had to offset for them to pay all staff.