The Minister of Public Service, Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, has revealed that in a bid to strengthen human resource management, accountability and service delivery across the public service, government has increased the public service wage bill by more than UGX 1.08 trillion shillings for the 2026/2027 financial year.
“Government has appropriated a wage bill of UGX 9.708 trillion for FY 2026/2027, reflecting an increase from the FY 2025/2026 wage bill of UGX 8.621 trillion, this represents an increase of UGX 1,087,922,490,025” he said.
He added, “The wage Bill presents a significant increase from FY 2018/2019 when the pay policy principles and long term pay targets were adopted when the total wage bill was UGX 4.2 Trillion”.
Gen Katumba, who made the remarks while addressing media at the Uganda Media Centre on Thursday, revealed that the enhanced wage bill will support staff already in post, critical recruitment and phased salary enhancement for selected categories of public officers.
The selected public officers to benefit from the wage increment include; deputy chief administrative officers, deputy city and town clerks, assistant commissioners, heads of department in local governments, public officers on salary scale U2, teachers in humanities, TVET instructors, ferry captains, grader operators, mortuary attendants and X-ray attendants.
“The Public Officers not indicated above will be enhanced in FY2027/28. We have kept the promise to enhance salaries in phases, and certainly, we shall do so” he said.
Gen Katumba who also issued the Establishment Notice No. 3 of 2026 on Human Resource Management in the Public Service, said the circular provides key guidelines that will shape public service management during the financial year, and further cautioned accounting officers against unauthorized recruitment.
“However, I wish to emphasize that wage bill discipline remains a serious Government priority. Recruitment in FY 2026/2027 shall only be undertaken after clearance from the Ministry of Public Service, upon confirmation of both wage availability and vacancies on the approved establishment. Employees recruited without authority will not be cleared for access onto the payroll,” he said.
The Minister urged accounting officers with approved wage allocations and vacant positions to immediately seek recruitment clearance to avoid unspent wage allocations while creating employment opportunities.
