Africa-Press – Uganda. Government is set to recruit more staff in the health, education as well as water and environment sectors under the World Bank-funded Uganda Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer (UgIFT) programme.
The secretary to the Treasury, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi, last week wrote to relevant the accounting officers, instructing them to put the Shs116.5b, which was allocated to the three sectors by Ministry of Finance to use.
The staff are supposed to be recruited and put on the payroll by December 1 before government can access $5.2 (Shs18.3b) million from the World Bank to boost the sectors.
“Last year, the government was not able to access the $5.2 million from the World Bank under UgIFT on account of not completing the recruitment process,” he said.
This was due to the closure of schools to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Mr Ggoobi tasked all accounting officers to provide a status report on the recruitment of additional staff especially in health facilities and schools by Friday.
The letter also revealed that the government set aside additional resources in the 2021/2022 Financial Year to pay the wages of inspectors of school as well as teaching and non-teaching staff in primary and secondary schools.
At least Shs24.1b has been earmarked for recruitment of additional teachers in local government schools which are short-staffed.
Another Shs22.9b is set for recruitment of additional secondary school teachers in local governments with highest vacancy rates while Shs3.4 billion will be used for recruitment of primary school teachers in refugee-hosting local governments, and Shs19.8 billion is for recruitment of teachers in recently constructed seed secondary schools.
Elsewhere, Shs4.3 billion will be ring-fenced for recruitment of school inspectors in local governments.
For the health centres, at least Shs10.3b is for recruiting health workers in 126 newly upgraded health centre IIIs while Shs2.3b is for recruitment of health workers in refugee-hosting local governments and Shs27.2b is for the recruitment of health workers in local governments with the highest vacancy rates.
