By Hope Muhairwe
This news website has landed on an official government document illustrating the extent to which it’s lucrative for government officials (politicians and technocrats) to make frequent prolonged trips abroad. The document, exclusively obtained from Hon. Muruli Mukasa’s Public Service Ministry, shows the different categories of allowances public officials earn each time they undertake duty out of their work stations. It shows how much the different officials earn in perdiem and other allowances each time they travel for official duty within Uganda and abroad. It for example shows that each day he undertakes official duty but outside his Kampala office, Vice President Sekandi earns Shs210,000; Premier Rugunda earns Shs200,000 and lowest in that category is deputy RDC who earns Shs150,000 per day. Head Public Service and Secretary to Cabinet, the old man John Mitala earns Shs170,000 daily for the same inconvenience if its within Uganda and $570 if its abroad. This applies when the tasks undertaken are within Uganda. It’s much more when the task is undertaken outside Uganda: For the VP, it will be $720 (close to Shs3m) per night, $670 for Rugunda and $430 for the Deputy RDC who appears the least remunerated in that category of officials. When it comes to Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, he gets $650 (over Shs2.4m) per night for duty undertaken abroad. For any duty he undertakes outside his office within Uganda, the CJ earns Shs195,000 per day. His Deputy Owiny Dollo earns Shs190,000 for the same and $570 for duty undertaken abroad. That part of our exhaustive list has many other lower-ranking officials categorized as “specified officers.” For the district chairperson, every night he is abroad for official duty, $400 will be given to him as opposed to his/her vice’s $350. The lowest under local government elected leaders’ category is the Sub County councilor who earns $320 per night spent on duty abroad. Gentlemen and ladies, the list is very exhaustive clearly detailing and defining all manner of allowances and perdiem-and readers are encouraged to read for themselves. This news website spoke to Minister Muruli Mukasa who authenticated the rates indicated in our list and actually said “that is the official position and we haven’t effected any changes to increase those rates as was recently reported by one of the weekend newspapers.”
THE FULL LIST FOLLOWS:
