Civil servants get salary raise

Teachers will get a 50 percent salary increment over the next six years, the Minister of Public Service and Labour, Anastase Murekezi, announced yesterday. According to the minister, teachers at A2 education level (S.6 graduates) will be the first to get a 10 percent increment on their salaries effective this month, besides another 10 percent general increment among all teachers’ salaries to be effected in July. Going by the previous structure, a teacher at the level of A2 who was getting a net salary of Rwf 41,804 will at the end of this month receive Rwf 44,334. After another 10 percent increment in July this year, the same teacher will be earning Rwf48,168, with the increment expected to be gradual over the course of six years. “By 2016, a teacher at the level of A2 will be earning Rwf 62,803 representing a 50 percent increment,” announced Murekezi. Generally, the government has been spending Rwf 36 billion on teachers’ salaries annually since 2006. This January, the amount will shoot up to Rwf 58 billion. The amount will soar to Rf 84 billion after the July increment. In the same development, the government has drawn what it termed as the regularisation scheme, where teachers who have served for long without salary increments will have all outstanding arrears cleared. The country has 54,692 teachers and among those, 16,000 will benefit from the programme. Meanwhile, a recent cabinet meeting approved Presidential Orders revising salaries and other benefits among top government officials, and according to Murekezi, there was a slight percentage increase for other government officials, apart from teachers. “We want to reach a level where all public servants walk home with a satisfactory salary, but this depends on economic growth,” observed Murekezi. In a related development, the net salaries for district mayors have also been increased from Rwf 437.795 to Rwf 736.553. Also in the new proposal, the Senate President, Speaker of Parliament and Prime Minister would each walk home with a package of Rwf 12 million upon the completion of their mandate, on top of a similar figure they get upon assuming office. Other top government officials will also be offered such benefits but on varying amounts.

National

Civil servants get salary raise