Parish Chiefs must up-grade or retire, Government

Parish Chiefs must up-grade or retire, Government. The Local Government Ministry has extended the grace period for parish chiefs and town agents to acquire the required education qualifications or retire from service.

Last year, District Service Commissions conducted interviews for officers occupying the offices of parish chiefs and town agents as part of the restructuring process. 

During the exercise, districts asked parish chiefs and town agents to submit new academic papers following the revision of the salary scale and academic qualifications for the occupants of both offices. The government raised the academic qualifications of parish chiefs and town agents from certificate to diploma level and revised the salary scale from U7 to U5.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Service, Bitarakwate Musingwiire has directed Chief Administrative Officers and Town clerks to give the affected officers a two-year grace to secure a diploma or bachelor’s degree from recognized institutions to meet the required qualifications.

In her January 9th, 2018 letter, Musingwiire notes that the purpose of the grace period is to give the affected a chance to scale up their qualifications for consideration for redeployment, re-designation, or retirement.

She also directs the CAOs to budget for new wages, pension, and gratuity in case of redundancies in the financial year 2018/19. In the new salary scale, the parish chiefs and town agents will earn Shillings 460,000 per month up from Shillings 360,000. 

Ronald Ndawula, the LC 5 Chairman of Luweero, says the two-year grace period is a huge relief to parish chiefs who hadn’t acquired the required academic papers.

Mustapha Lubega, the Chairperson of Luweero District Parish Chief Association has welcomed the directive, saying the earlier move was unfair to some chiefs who hadn’t returned to school to upgrade.

Two years ago, the Ministry of Education and Sports also gave a three-year ultimatum to headteachers to acquire bachelor’s degrees or be demoted and retired. While some returned to school others argued that they are too old to study and opted to retire.