Every year, public servants ask for a pay rise from government citing inflation and other economic factors, and the Ministry of Public Service listens to their requests and acts accordingly, depending on what is available in the treasury.
This is not going to be the case this year as the Minister of Public Service Muruli Mukasa has come out to say that the budget will not be able to support their pay enhancement in the next financial year.
“We might not in the next financial year have any pay increase because of the various demands in our budget. There are other challenges and priorities that have come in, much as there is a contingency fund, but it goes beyond what we have anticipated,” Murulu said.
The challenges in question include unforeseen disasters like landslides in Bududa, the current locust invasion, climate change that leads to torrential rains that flood and destroy property and lives among others.
“All these have impacted negatively on our pay enhancement roadmap and it becomes imperative to put a temporary hold until next financial year when we shall continue to move,” Muruli added.
The Minister said that most of these internal development programmes are financed by the budget because, with these, government does not go to lenders to borrow money to finance them.