Uganda: Clean up payroll of police officers, Members of Parliament (MPs) tell minister

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Lawmakers have tasked the Ministry of Public Service to clean up the payroll of police officers in a bid to put an end to complaints of unpaid salaries of officers.

The Members of Parliament made the demands while responding to a statement of the Minister of Defence and Internal Affairs, Gen. Kahinda Otafiire that was presented by Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (Industry), Hon. David Bahati during plenary sitting on Thursday, 17 April 2025.

The minister said that some officers have not been paid due to a mismatch in names and dates of birth.  

“In 2023, the Auditor General conducted a validation exercise for all government employees. Some officers failed to meet validation requirements due to missing national identification cards, discrepancies in names and dates of birth. These officers were categorised as partially validated,” Bahati said.

He added that data migration from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS) to Human Capital Management System (HCM) has also played a role in delaying salary payment of some officers. 

“Salaries on HCM are paid first then the process of payment on IPPS starts; this is to avoid double payments. The two systems however, do not cause missing salaries but delays for those still on IPPS. The process is underway to ensure all are migrated to the HCM system,” he said.

The matter had been earlier raised by the Tororo District Woman MP, Hon. Sarah Opendi who tasked the minister to provide a list of the affected officers and timeline of completion of migration of the systems.  

“If you look at the audit report, we shall find un-utilised salaries of police officers. The police officers cannot come for fear of victimisation. Let the Minister of Public Service explain why the integration of this system is taking long,” she said.

The Minister of State for Public Service, Hon. Grace Mugasa said that the migration is ongoing adding that it is aimed at ridding the system of ghost workers. 

“We noticed many ghost workers were on the payroll and government is losing an estimated Shs5 billion per annum,” she said.  

The Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi however, said that the matter should be resolved within a week, given its gravity. 

“Police officers are brutalising people because they are angry. These people earn very meagre salaries that they can barely get through with their lives. We task government to deal with this matter,” Ssenyonyi said.

Hon. Godfrey Onzima (NRM, Aringa North County) wondered why government keeps changing payment systems saying that such changes are to blame for missing salaries. 

“You [Public Service Ministry] introduce a system that works for only three years and change. Why don’t they use systems that work for at least 10 years,” Onzima asked.

Hon. Rosemary Nyakikongoro (NRM, Sheema District) said that it is unfair for officers to miss their salaries as a result of government’s inadequacies. 

“It is mandatory for one to have a national identification card before they are recruited. How is it then possible that when it is time to pay, you say they don’t have identification cards?” she asked.

Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa directed the Minister of Public Service to provide a comprehensive statement within two. 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.

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