Police, Prisons inspectors get pay rise

Police and Prisons officers at the rank of inspector of police and principal officers have got a salary increment after nearly four years of earning less than their juniors.
The officers received the rise this month, Police and Prisons officials confirmed to the Daily Monitor yesterday.
Since 2017, lower rank officers including constables, corporals and sergeants have been earning more money in salary than Assistant Inspector of Police and Inspector of Police, who are above them by rank.
Assistant Inspector of Police (AIP) and Inspector of Police (IP) have been earning Shs456,000 and Shs520,000 per month respectively.
The AIP immediate subordinate, who is a sergeant, earns Shs570,000, followed by a corporal who gets Shs530,000 and a police constable who takes Shs470,000.
The officer at the rank of AIP, IP and prisons principal officer I or II said they got an increment of Shs100,000.
Uganda Prisons Services spokesman Frank Baine confirmed that their officers at the rank of principal officers I and II got an increment.
“The government started salary enhancement in a phased manner from the junior officers upwards. It wasn’t done so fast, which meant that the lower officers have been earning more than some of their colleagues of higher ranks. It only affected security personnel. This is what is being corrected,” Mr Baine said.
According to the Public Service ministry, the enhancement exercise was supposed to take five years and would cover all civil servants, but four years since it started only junior officers have got a pay rise.  
Police spokesman Fred Enanga had earlier said that the disparities in salaries among junior officers had caused low morale in the police force.
Some officers didn’t want to be promoted for fear of getting a lesser salary.
The affected officers’ complaint to the Inspector General of Police Martins Okoth-Ochola received a harsh response and silence.
Mr Ochola told them to write to him so that he could demote them to the ranks where they could get more pay.
The enhancement of the salary of inspectors and principal officers will exert more pressure on the government to consider superintendents.
An assistant superintendent earns Shs640,000 a month as salary and they are agitating for more pay.
Police superintendents say they spend most of the salary on rent and transport because they aren’t allowed to stay in police barracks as is the case with their immediate subordinates, the inspectors.