UBOS wrapping up payment of census officials-Dr. Mukiza

By Evans Najuna

KAMPALA – The Executive Director of Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), Dr. Chris Mukiza, has revealed that the bureau is finalising payments to all officials who participated in the just concluded National population and housing census exercise dubbed Census2024.

In a press statement read for him by the Bureau’s senior public relations officer Didacus Okoth at the Uganda Media Centre on Thursday, the chief statistician informed the Country that almost all the Census Personnel have so far been paid a total of 88.7 Billion through E- Cash platform, adding that, in this case, money goes directly to the final beneficiary.

Dr. Mukiza 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,” said Mukiza.

The Executive Director highlighted the Census 2024 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, Dr. Mukiza 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, UBOS boss, said that 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, Mukiza said, 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.

Dr. Mukiza said that the payment of this category was phased such that the Enumeration staff are paid first. He further noted that so far 912 (55.78%) have been paid and 663 are to be paid in the month of August 2024.

On the issue of service providers payment, Mukiza informed the country that all services providers for Census 2024 have been paid except for those whose account numbers submitted were wrong. The Bureau has requested them to re- submit the right account details.

However, the Executive Director expressed his displeasure concerning Census equipment which are so far still missing. 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.

Convulsively, Dr. Mukiza noted that they are currently processing and analysing Census 2024 data.

“The Bureau is currently processing and analyzing raw Census data to the level. Final results will be disseminated at the end of September 2024,” the Executive Director said.