Florence Namayanja, the Masaka City Mayor says that the low staffing levels are affecting key departments that include; Physical Planning and Housing, Community Development, Agriculture and Production, Natural Resources and Environment, and Works and Engineering
Masaka City Council is facing understaffing which is
limiting service delivery.
The leaders
argue that the staffing level is way below the recommended average of 55
percent of the required workforce, which has led to heavy work overload for the
existing staff.
According
to the approved staff structure by the Public Service Commission, Masaka City Council
is supposed to have a workforce of 204 civil servants and an additional 236
staff deployed in the two city divisions of Kimanya-Kabonera and
Nyendo-Mukungwe.
Florence
Namayanja, the Masaka City Mayor says they are operating at 35 percent of the
approved staff structure, explaining that the available workforce can hardly
deliver the required services and meet public satisfaction.
According to
Namayanja, the problem was partly inherited from the former Masaka Municipal Council
whose staffing level was also still standing at 67 percent by the time it was
elevated to city status. She adds that the Ministry of Public Services has
delayed the process of approving the recruitment of new staff.
She says
that the low staffing levels are affecting key departments that include;
Physical Planning and Housing, Community Development, Agriculture and
Production, Natural Resources and Environment, and Works and Engineering whose
services are urgently needed for guiding proper and systematic development of
the new city.
Ronald
Katende Kinene, the Masaka City Resident Commissioner says that the problem is
affecting his monitoring role of the government program in the area. He explains
that the inadequate staff is slowing down the implementation of some public
projects.
Katende adds that many of the available staff are also working in acting
capacities, which affects their morale while executing the assignments. He,
however, indicates that the City's technical and political leaders should unite
and task the Public Service Commission and the Ministry of Finance to allow
them to conduct the recruitment exercise so that the existing staffing gap is
bridged.
//Cue
in: “nja kusaba Mayor….
Cue out; …nga baby nyo.”//
Geoffrey Bemanyisa, the Masaka City
Clerk explains that the problem is due to the delay by the Ministry of Finance
to increase the city’s wage bill that can cater for the salaries of the staff once
recruited.
He indicates
that while they require a wage bill of 5.17 billion Shillings, the Ministry of
Finance is still allocating them 1.87 billion Shillings, which was being
allocated to the former municipality.
Bemanyisa,
says that they have formally communicated the problem to the Ministry of Local
government, requesting support to move the Ministry of Finance to increase
the wage bill.
Masaka City was operationalized in July 2020, after it was elevated from a
Municipal council status following a protracted clamor by the local community
including the political and prominent opinion leaders.
