University Staff Salaries Still Unsettled

By Robert Ojambo (PhD)

The New Vision newspaper on July 2^nd run an editorial on Salary Enhancement using a member institution of Forum for Academic Staff of Public Universities in Uganda (FASPU) – Makerere University as an example. This editorial lied to the public when it insinuated that salaries for lecturers in public universities have been settled.

This is not true because if it was so, academic staff in public universities would not have resolved to go on strike as soon as Universities open. The following is the true situation;

On 14th December, 2019, HE the President directed Ministry of Public Service to find UGX 179.2bn to settle the 5-year salary enhancement struggle once and for all. This allocation based on the approved scales in 2014 would be enough to fully enhance all categories of academic staff in all public universities on a pro rata basis as below;

Vice Chancellor …… 20M

Deputy VCs……………17M

Professor ……………. 15M

Assoc. Professor ….14M

Senior Lecturer ……. 13M

Lecturer ………………. 12M

Ass. Lecturer ………. 10M

On the 11th of March, 2020 the Minister of Education and the First Lady Mrs. Janet Museveni wrote to the Minister of Finance asking him to budget for salary enhancement for Academic Staff in public universities as per HE the President’s directive stemming from the meeting of 14th December, 2019 with Academic Staff Leaders at Statehouse Entebbe.

On 26th of March, 2020 the PSST Mr. Keith Muhakanizi wrote to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Service requesting for the breakdown of 179.2bn to fulfil HE the President’s directive to enhance academic staff salaries in FY 2020/21. Subsequently on 31st March, 2020 the PSST wrote to Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education allocating only UGX 50bn out of the expected UGX 179.2bn for purposes of enhancing salaries of Academic Staff in public universities.

On 2nd April, 2020, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Service wrote to PS, Ministry of Education showing how the 50bn would be shared among academic staff on a pro rata basis. This is the salary structure that academic staff thought was a fair salary structure.

Later, and to the surprise of academic staff, the PS Ministry of Education wrote back redistributing only 50bn as follows;

Vice Chancellor …… 20M

Deputy VCs …………  17M

Professor …………..15.6M

Assoc. Prof ………. 14.8M

Senior Lecturer ……..  8M

Lecturer ………………… 7M

Ass. Lecturer ……… 5.8M

From the two scales above, you can clearly see that VCs, DVCs, Professors and Associate Professors are the only ones that were settled based on the agreed structure.

It’s also clear that Senior Lecturers, Lecturers and Assistant Lecturers have not been settled. The contested salary structure also shows that on individual basis Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe the VC of Makerere University is well settled and his quoted statement in the article is well justified while 1200 out of 1500 academic staff he manages at Makerere University are not settled.

Remember also that 10 public universities being referred to in the article have approximately 2960 academic staff. Only 350 of these, include VCs, DVCs, Professors and Assoc. Professors who are settled in the contested enhanced salary structure of FY 2020/21 that the article is referring to.

This means that over 2600 from the rank of Senior Lecturer below are unsettled. A survey run by Forum for Academic Staff of Public Universities in Uganda (FASPU) leadership across all public universities on the proposed distribution of UGX 50bn indicates that 91% of academic staff don’t agree with the proposed salary enhancement structure 2020/21.

To inform the New Vision editorial, FASPU would like to state that academic staff salaries in FY 2020/21 have only been partially enhanced, considering a few section of staff, but ignoring the majority of staff who actually sustain these universities.

To be exact, the salary structure that is to be implemented in 2020/21 and being praised by Prof. Nawangwe was originally presented in the meeting with HE the President on 14/12/2019, and HE rejected it. It could be because Prof. Nawangwe did not attend this meeting but yet still, we expect him to be the least sensitive to the concerns of academic staff as a VC since he is settled.

Therefore, the salary structure for FY 2021/21 is contrary to HE the President’s directive of 2014 and that of 14/12/2019, since it is unfair to lower academic ranks. It indeed only settles the VCs and Professors and is divisive.

For your editorial to be varied and informed, the right, and objective amount for full enhancement of salaries for all academic staff in public universities would be UGX 179.24bn in the FY2021/21. However, only 50bn was allocated and above all unfairly distributed to the disadvantage of majority academic staff who include over 2600 (Senior Lecturers, Lecturers, Assistant Lecturers and Teaching Assistants) out 2960 members of FASPU.

We therefore request your honourable newspaper which is widely respected by readers as a national mouth piece to withdraw the editorial and instead publish this rebuttal as the true fact.

We also request all stakeholders in this salary enhancement process especially Managements and Councils of Public Universities to continue working for harmony among staff and avoid hoodwinking the public with blatant falsehoods.

Indeed, all members of FASPU are committed to competitive research and teaching once they are all competitively remunerated and supported. We have also made this commitment to HE the President and the people of Uganda before. We will not backtrack on this commitment.

The writer is the Publicity Secretary – FASPU