Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), is finalising payments to all officials who participated in the just concluded National Population and Housing census exercise dubbed Census2024.
In a press statement the Bureau’s Senior Public Relations officer Didacus Okoth informed the Country that almost all the Census Personnel have so far been paid a total of sh88.7 billion through E- Cash platform, adding that, in this case, money goes directly to the final beneficiary.
Okoth explained that for those who have not yet received their payments should be patient and on behalf of the Uganda Bureau of Statistics assured them that all efforts are being put towards ends to see that everyone is paid.
“We are working closely with officials of the Local Government, especially the Districts and Cities, to ensure that the pending field participants are all cleared for payment,” he said .
According to Okoth the Census had a total of 115,846 enumerators and out of this, a total of 114,327 (98.7%) have so far been paid all their entitlements whereas 1,519 are yet to be paid.
He cited three reasons for non-payment among which include the mismatch where the name of the beneficiary does not correspond with the name on registered mobile number, loss of Census equipment (tablet, power bank with the accessory) and the name not being submitted by the Accounting Officers of their respective Local Governments.
Concerning field guides, Okoth stated that, out of a total of 112,970 Guides who participated in the Census enumeration, a total of 109,730 (97.1%) have been paid whereas 3,240 have not been paid yet owing to mismatch.
For Enumeration Supervisors, these were totaling to 14,643 of which 13,272 have been paid and 1,371 are yet to be paid pending correction of their details.
On the Sub-County Supervisors, this category had 4,713 participants and a total of 4,686 (99.4%) have been paid and only 120 are yet to be paid. There was also the category of District Officials and according to him, the Local Government Officials involved in Census 2024 were Chief Administrative Officers (CAO), District Chairpersons (LCV), Resident District Commissioners (RDC), Resident City Commissioners (RCC), District Police Commanders (DPC), District Internal Security Officers (DISO), District Census Officers (DCO), Assistant District Census Officers (ADCO), District Internal Auditor, and District Information Technology Officer (DITO) totaling to 1,635.
Okoth requested the census enumerators not yet paid to return census gadgets to ease their payments.
According to him, the Bureau deployed 122,026 tablets during Census enumeration, 121,197 (99.3%) tablets have been retrieved from the Districts/Cities and 829 are yet to be recovered. On Power Banks, UBOS deployed 119,418 power banks for Census enumeration in the various Districts and Cities. 107,685 (90.2%) Power Banks have been retrieved and so far 11,733 are yet to be recovered.