SALARIES.
Mzee Joachim Buwembo authored a book “The Uganda Paradox” and he dedicated a full chapter on salaries. I learnt in the 70’s the highest paid public servant was the CJ at shs. 7,000 followed by the president at 6K ( which he donated towards Karamoja development).
Fresh graduates had a beginning salary of 1,800. Professionals like doctors earned slightly above 2K.
To make sense of these figures let us consider the highest paid public servant today who I think is at 45M and doctor in mulago at 800K. So the ratio of lowest paid to highest paid in 70’s was 1:3.5 while now it’s 1:56. Oh my God .
But before we get carried away almost every one is demanding for salary increment, judicial officers, teachers, doctors etc. So it looks like we are in a pit and everyone is doing the best to get out at the expense of others.
I will tell you how we got here and if you are objective enough you will see I have also offered the solution at no cost.
This all started when government gave up on taking care of its citizens. Like we say in management that you cannot control what you don’t manage., it’s what happened whe government decided to hand over all what we owned as a country to so called investors who have ended up instead of adding value have added damage. What NRM did to our economy was like a new mother handing over a one day baby to be taken care of by a maid mbu the new mother has better things to do.
What I know in the 70’s public servants on top of their salaries they had quarters where they lived as a community and I think depending on the seniority is the house you were allocated.
Things worked in the 70’s because the economy was both capitalist and socialist.
Today our economy is purely capitalist and it is like that because our leaders are business men and women.
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