Over 295,000 public jobs vacant - report

The government currently employs 366,574 public officers, according to the report, a figure that Suzan Nakitto, the principal monitoring and evaluation officer at the Public Service ministry, said does not include military and intelligence personnel.

Speaking at the dissemination of the report, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Ms Catherine Bitarakwate, said the report was developed through analysing various data and was more than just a headcount.

“It is not just a document of numbers and statistics,” she said. “It is a comprehensive overview of our government human resource landscape capturing key data and trends that are critical for informed critical decisions,” she said, adding: “The findings will serve as a road map for the ministry’s efforts to manage government workers better.”

The large number of unfilled positions raise questions about the government’s planning and allocation of resources given the number of unemployed and underemployed people. It will also raise questions about the size of the public service, which, 30 years ago, underwent a restructuring process as part of the World Bank-funded Structural Adjustment Programme of reform.

The staffing gaps have been partly blamed on a two-year ban, from April 2023, on recruitment for all ministries, departments, agencies and local governments pending a comprehensive audit of the payroll.

Staffing gaps

According to the report, referral hospitals have the biggest staffing gaps with seven out of every 10 positions unfilled, just ahead of public universities. They are followed by public health care services (66 percent), Uganda Prison Services (46 percent) local government (45 percent), ministries and departments (39 percent), the teaching service (34 percent), government agencies (33 percent), and the Uganda Police Force (32 percent). 

Revelations of staffing gaps in public hospitals, while not new, come on the backdrop of government’s failure to pay for graduate medical doctors to do their internship, a precursor to being fully employed. The government cites a lack of money.

According to the report, staffing in the education sector remains a challenge despite an increase of the total filled positions from 183,469 in 2022 to more than 187,000 in 2023. The report shows that tertiary and secondary education are the most affected with a high number of staffing gaps, whereas the number of employees in primary schools remained stable over the past five years.

In the primary education sector, different staff categories are employed, with non-teaching staff carrying the highest percentage of vacant positions (90 percent). The vacancy rate for senior education assistants stands at 40 percent; deputy head teacher at 32 percent; head teachers at 20 percent and education assistants at 14 percent.

Three out of every 10 positions in public universities remained unfilled in 2023. Mountains of the Moon University had the highest staffing rate at only 51 percent), while Busitema University had the lowest, at 18 percent.

Mr Richard Keuber, the head of human resources at Kyambogo University, asked the government to suspend issuing licenses to new universities until the staffing gaps are filled.

 “I come from a public university, you have seen the staffing level at 31 percent but tomorrow, you will hear three more new universities created; where will they get the staff?” he asked. “They poach from one another.”

Mr Ambrose Emolu, the principal human resource officer at the Ministry of Education and Sports, asked the Ministry of Public Service to break down the data of staffing gaps between the science and art specialisations to aid prioritisation.

“Is it possible for us to have an analysis of how many science teachers we have in this country and not just having it bundled up as education officers, assistant education officers for better planning purposes,” he said. 

Government has in recent years sought to pay higher salaries to educators with a science bias. 

According to the report, out of the 1,620 key positions at district headquarters, 926 were filled in 2023, but critical ones like district engineers and production and marketing officers still registered high vacancy rates of 81 percent and 60 percent respectively.

The sub-county positions crucial for the implementation of the Parish Development Model, a flagship poverty-alleviation plan, had a higher overall staffing rate of 76 percent. The positions of community development officers were filled at a high rate of 93 percent. However, only 36 percent of senior assistant secretary positions were filled.

As of December 2023, there were 135 districts local governments, 10 cities and 31 municipalities, with 262,972 employees on the active government payroll.

Unhealthy levels

The report revealed that the health sector, in total, has a staffing gap of 67 percent, with regional referral hospitals taking the lead with vacant positions.

National referral hospitals have a staffing gap of 46 percent, with 2,671 out of the 5,820 positions filled. Mulago National Referral Hospital, the country’s biggest, has the highest staffing rate at 66 percent, while Naguru National Referral Hospital has the lowest at 24 percent.

Regional referral hospitals overall staffing rate stands at only 23 percent, leaving a 77 percent vacancy rate, according to the report. This means Ugandans living in the rural areas, who are the majority, have less access to qualified medical personnel.

Five specialised institutions in the health sector were analysed as part of the exercise. The report shows that out of 5,745 approved positions, only 1,186 (21 percent) were filled, indicating a significant staffing shortfall.

Uganda Heart Institute has the most critical staffing shortage, with only one in 10 positions filled. 

Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital has a higher staffing rate at 41 percent – leaving six out of every 10 positions unfilled.

 The Public Service Permanent Secretary wrote to her counterpart in the Ministry of Health authorising recruitment of critical staff in national and regional referral hospitals after the Auditor General’s latest report found that 21 hospitals in different parts of the country had wage surpluses.

Mr Dan Namonyo, the principal human resource officer at the Health Service Commission, which is responsible for hiring in the sector, said after the green light to recruit, several recruitments were made.

 “By the end of the financial year, we were able to do several recruitments and on the 7-8th of this month, we had a recruitment planning meeting of all the regional referral hospitals, including hospital directors and human resource officers and discussed issues regarding replacement,” he said.

The Public Service report, which covers the period to June 2023, revealed that 60,847 out of 133,670 approved positions in 75 government ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as 167 local governments, have been vacant for more than two years.

The reports also noted that early retirements in the public service have increased significantly from 443 in FY2020/2021 to 819 in FY2022/2023 and most early retirees are teachers, particularly primary teachers.

A total of 33,754 public servants are expected to retire between 2024 and 2028, with the teaching service accounting for 56 percent of these retirements.

Other local government employees retiring in the next five years will number 2,855; public universities (1,092); Uganda Prisons Force (824); ministries and departments (1,622); Uganda Police Force (5,000); referral hospitals (963); primary health care services (2,457); and teaching service (18,941).

According to the report, this trend suggests potential workforce shortages and highlights the need for the government to manage pension funds more effectively to accommodate earlier than expected payouts.