Tension, misery and tears engulfed the ruling party (NRM) head offices in Kampala after a crisis meeting convened Tuesday resolved to sack majority of the workers.
The decision was announced by the Secretary General (SG) Justine Kasule Lumumba who was flanked by several party bigwigs at plot 10 Kyadondo, Kampala.
For long, the party secretariat has been embroiled in cash fights with workers who have spent months without pay.
Against this backdrop, Lumumba, last year drafted a proposal to trim staff by half as a means of cutting costs at the secretariat.
The party chairman President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni endorsed Lumumba’s work pan she present in 2017 in a bid to slice down the party’s Shs2.56b annual wage bill.
TrumpetNews has learnt that on Tuesday, Lumumba summoned a ‘crisis’ meeting to announce the major sackings.
The affected staff who have been conducting “not so vital work” for the party.
“Those with contracts are likely not to be affected,” said a source.
This website has further learnt that Lumumba appealed to the President for funds to pay off workers’ salary arrears of 7 months before dismissing them.
“The NRM party has no any other source of funding. It has no business to attract money. The only money it depends on is from government. I think the Secretary General made a wise decision to lay off staff. To relieve of unnecessary pressure,” said a source.
The NRM secretariat’s current wage bill is reported to be standing at more than Shs2.56b and both President Museveni and Lumumba are reportedly eager to slash it down to Shs360 million.
By the time of filing this report, Lumumba couldn’t answer our repeated calls.
The NRM communications officer Rogers Mulindwa’s known phone number was unavailable.
But last year he told a section of the media that, “there are negative forces that are looking at this as sending away our people, which is not true. The actual thing that is going to happen is putting people in the right positions; hiring new ones where needed and retiring others who want to leave.”