The Cabinet has approved a 16 per cent salary increment for public servants (‘normal’ employees and support staff), and 20 per cent for heads of divisions in public institutions and agencies.

The increment translates into additional Rwf3.3 billion to the public sector wage bill this financial year, according to Samuel Mulindwa, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Public Service and Labour. 

Speaking at a post-Cabinet news conference in Kigali, yesterday, Mulindwa said the increment does not include employees at the level of permanent secretaries and ministers.

Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting approved a number of resolutions, including the adjustment of ‘index value’ to 350 and 400 for high institutions, ministries and public agencies that were below 400 index and related draft legal instruments.

PS Mulindwa said the move was based on the public pay policy that was approved in 2012.

He said the main content in the policy was to narrow the disparity among public servants and increase employees’ salary based on the Government’s financial means.

The index values are the statistical measurements based on while increasing public employees’ salaries. The higher the index, the higher the salary.

According to the policy, the lowest index value was 250 and in 2012, which was increased to 300 for professionals (‘normal’ public servants and support staff), while the index increased from 250 t0 330 for division managers.

Mulindwa said there were institutions with 250, some with 400 and others with 500 index value.

"The decision made yesterday [Wednesday] saw the institutions that had index values increased to 300, taken higher to 350, equivalent to 16 per cent of current salary for professional category, and from 330 to 400, representing 20 per cent of current salary for the heads of divisions,” the PS said.

In the policy, a ceiling was put on the institutions that had index value ranging from 400 to 500, meaning their index value will no longer go up before the others register an increment to catch up with them.

"It is in line with enhancing the morale or motivation of those institutions’ workers,” he said.

However, PS Mulindwa noted that although all the ministries had low index values, many of the Government agencies had high index value of 400 and 500.

Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture; the Chancellery for Heroes, National Orders and Decorations of Honour; and the National Council of Persons with Disabilities are among the biggest beneficiaries of the changes.

Meanwhile, Mulindwa said teachers had no index raise since 2012, but that at end of June, they received a 13 per cent salary increment.

Timely move

Mulindwa said some of the main principles that were based on to increase the index value included capacity, affordability and sustainability policy, noting that from 2012 up to now, it is evident that the country’s economy is on firmer footing and that it is the right timing for salary increase.

"For instance, in 2012, salaries and other fringe benefits accounted for about 41.5 per cent of the total national internal revenues, but now they take up 22 per cent of the revenues,” he said.

"This explains well that there is capacity to increase salaries and that is why it has been done because the proportion of the salaries vis-à-vis internal domestic revenues allows you to do so,” he concluded.

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