Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions and Answers

The Uganda Ministry of Public Service is a Cabinet level government ministry. The ministry is mandated to “develop, manage and administer human resource polices, management systems, procedures and structure for the public service” in Uganda

The ministry is headed by a Cabinet minister, Hon Wilson Muruli Mukasa.

He is assisted by the Hon. Minister of State for Public Service Hon. Hon. Karubanga David.

The Technical Head of the Ministry is Permanent Secretary, Catherine Bitarakwate Musingwiire (Mrs.)

The ministry is organised under three directorates:

Directorate of Management Services

  • Department of Institutional Assessment
  • Department of Systems Improvement
  • Department of Research and Standards

Directorate of Inspection and Quality Assurance

  • Department of Public Service Inspection
  • Department for Records and Information Management

Directorate of Human Resource Management

  • Department of Human Resource Policy
  • Department of Compensation
  • Department of Performance Management
  • Department of Human Resource Planning & Development

The headquarters of the ministry are located at Plot 12 Nakasero Hill Road in the neighborhood of Wandegeya in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The coordinates of the headquarters of the ministry are 0°19’53.0″N, 32°34’34.0″E (Latitude:0.331389; Longitude:32.576111).

Ministry of Public Service
Plot 12, Nakasero Hill Road,
   P.O. Box 7003 Kampala.
   +256414250534/6,
+256414250557/8 OR
   Toll Free: 0800 100 200/1/2
   ps@publicservice.go.ug

Frequently Asked Questions - Payroll Management

Statutory deductions are the deductions effected on ones pay as stipulated by law such as the Paye Act, LST Act.

They include Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Local Service Tax (LST), and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) contribution. PAYE is deducted every month and is charged based on your monthly income while LST is charged annually and it is based on one’s annual income. This is usually deducted during the 1st four months of the financial year after which the deduction is stopped. NSSF is deducted monthly and the employee contributed 5% of their gross salary while the employer contributes 10% of the employee’s gross salary.

The other deductions include Union dues such as UNATU, Medical Workers Council; Loan Repayment Installments; and other contributions including those effected out of court orders such as child support.

You are eligible for annual salary increment if you have been confirmed in the service.  The annual increment is effected at every anniversary of your assumption of duty.

A Salary Increment Schedule was negotiated and agreed.

Please see attached schedule.

Validation is the process of capturing an employee’s biometric and matching his payroll record with the National Identification system.  This is done only for records that are active on payroll.

The employee is required to present their appointment and posting letters, National Identity card and their current payslip to the validation officer and this is currently at the Ministry of Public Service Headquarters.

Collected data is linked to the Nation ID data and where there are mis-matches in say names, dates of birth and biometric templates, the record is suspended from the payroll until the mis-matches are explained.

During this exercise, the exceptions are sent to the Inspectorate of Government for investigation and records can only be reinstated after clearance for this investigating agency.

To correct particulars on the National Identity Card, please contact the issuing agency, the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA).

Printed copies of pay slips can be provided by the Human Resources Officers of the respective votes.

Pay slips for period prior to the introduction of IPPS can be accessed from the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic development, Office of the Accountant General.

Frequently Asked Questions - Pension Management

This is so due to non-verification of the retiree by the vote of retirement and eventual non-migration from the legacy system.  The retiree is advised to contact the vote of retirement and present a filled NS7 form, Bank statement and life certificate.  The vote will then write a request to the PS MoPS to migrate and decentralize the record to their respective vote payroll hence reinstatement.

This is so due to non-decentralization of the retiree’s record to their respective vote of retirement on the IPPS.  The retiree is advised to contact the vote of retirement and present a filled NS7 form, Bank statement and life certificate.  The vote will then write the PS MoPS a request to decentralize the record to their respective vote payroll hence reinstatement.
This is a case that was not concluded prior to decentralization and now requires re-initiating of the process by the vote of retirement using the IPPS.

Your request may have been queried due to lack of some information (variances in dates of birth, hire, inconsistence of the salary details) or documentation.

You are advised to contact the Human Resource Officer of your vote of retirement who has access to workflow information on the IPPS to inform you of the required information which you need to provide to expedite the process.

At the time of decentralizing pension processing, all unpaid gratuity and pension arrears were compiled in schedules which were submitted to MoFPED.  You are advised to contact the HRO of your retirement vote to fill the arrears form who will then send it to MoFPED.  Upon availability of resources, MoFPED will send the funds to the vote for payment to the claimant.

Payment of pension is based on a formula which considers one’s length of service in number of months, their last annual salary at the time of retirement and the pension fraction, 1/500.

Revalidation of pension is usually done when there is enhancement of salary levels for serving officers.  You are advised to contact the HRO to confirm whether or not you are being under paid.  In case it is established that you are under paid, the vote will correct the payment amount and also process arrears arising out of under payment.

A life certificate is a document that a pension fills and signs annually to inform the paying vote that the pensioner still lives.  It is filled by all pensioners but emphasis is usually put on those who have earned pension beyond 15years.  The life certificate is presented to the vote of retirement.

The respective vote of the retiree is responsible for the payment of all pension and gratuity arrears.

Access to pension files in the custody of the Ministry of Public Service can only be grated to the respective vote of the retiree.  Currently all pension files are being accessed to allow electronic access to.

Processing of retirement benefits involves the following steps:

  1. Creation of Retirement Plans by the respective Vote immediately an employee is recruited and accessed on the salary payroll;
  2. Submission of PSF 18, a bank form and bank statement Six months prior to retirement by the prospective retiring officer;
  3. Creation of a Retirement Request by the Human Resource at Vote on behalf of the retiring officer;
  4. Approval and authorization of transaction on the system by the PS/ MoPS;
  5. Validation and Approval of Retirement Request by the Vote’s Responsible Officer;
  6. Verification and Validation of Retirement requests by the HR at Ministry of Public Service;
  7. Approval of Retirement Requests by the Commissioner HRP at Ministry of Public Service;
  8. Computation of benefits by Assessment Officers at Ministry of Public Service;
  9. Auditing transactions by Auditors at the Ministry of Public;
  10. Authorization of computed benefits by the Commissioner/ Compensation at MoPS;
  11. Calculation of Pension payroll and transmission of payment details for eventual payment through IFMS;

Note: With full decentralization coming, all these steps would be concluded at the respective votes except for the calculation which will remain at the Pension Authority, the Ministry of Public Service.

Processing of retirements plan can take a day if all records of the retiring officer are accurate and readily available.

Deceased employee benefits are paid only to legal representatives designated as Estate Administrators.  These are expected to have obtained letters of administration from the High Court and to have opened up an Estate account to which the payments would be made.

For officers that may have served less than 10 years, a death gratuity is paid as a one off while for those that served for more than 10 years, a death gratuity is paid and monthly pension is also paid to the survivors for 15 years (this is applicable for those deaths that occurred on or after 24th March 1994). Upon the elapse of 15 years, this benefit is automatically stopped.

Where a pensioner dies before earning pension for 15years, the survivors earn a survivors’ benefit for the remaining part of the 15years after which it also stops automatically.

Gratuity is an advance payment from pension at the rate of 1/3 of the annual pension at retirement multiplied by a factor of 15 in accordance with regulation 20 of the Pension Regulations of the Pensions Act Cap. 286.

Pension is the periodic regular(monthly) payment made to a retiree who served for at least 10 years prior to retirement or to an officer who retired on abolition of office having been confirmed in the service.  On the contrary, Judges and Justices qualify for pension after serving for 1 year.

The requirements for early retirement are having 10 consecutive years of service and being atleast 45 years of age.  It should be noted though that early retirement granted takes effect in the subsequent Financial Year when it is budgeted for.

Frequently Asked Questions - Management Services

A position can only be created on the IPPS when there is a formal request from the respective Accounting Officer and that the position exists on the approved structure.
Upon receipt of a formal request from an Accounting Officer, the respective Job Descriptions are provided under the signature of the PS MoPS.  On the other hand, the Job Descriptions can be accessed from the Ministry website, www.publicservice.go.ug.
To access a copy of the approved structure for an MDA/LG, you will required a letter requesting for it signed off by the respective Accounting Officer.  Alternatively, the approved structure can be accessed from the MoPS website, www.publicservice.go.ug.

For positions that do not exist on the structure, the MDA/LG is required to submit a customized structure for approval.  The Customized structure would have to put into considerations these positions.

This can only be done upon receipt of a letter from the Accounting Officer requesting for the trade off and the Accounting Officer is required to provide the justification for the tradeoff.

The job position being traded off should not be critical and should be vacant.

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