All the 80 staff who attended the General Assembly under their umbrella of Makerere University Administrative Staff Association MASA overwhelmingly voted to maintain the position of the ministry as outlined in a circular early this month. Catherine Bitarakwate, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Public Service in her July 1st circular instructed all accounting officers in public universities to implement the new salary structure for the financial year 2017/2018.
The training comes at the backdrop of allegations of rape and exploitation by Ugandan soldiers who have been searching for Lords Resistance Army rebels in Central African Republic. The allegations appeared in a report released last month by Human Rights watch accusing Ugandan troops of sexually exploiting and abusing at least 13 women and girls since 2015.
According to Makerere University Councils approved policy on promotional tracks for academic staff, an Assistant Lecturer is an entry level rank who must have at least a Bachelors Degree with a First Class or Second Class Upper and Masters Degree. While an assistant lecturer at Makerere currently earns 4.8 million or 4.3 million shillings for science and non-science categories, the same salary scale in other public universities attracts a monthly pay of 5.7 million.
A meeting between striking staff at Ugandas public universities and officials from the Finance, Education and Public Service ministries appears to have addressed the issues that pushed the staff to lay down their tools.
