Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The government through the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development has released a 2026 salary framework for externally funded projects, standardising pay for senior management personnel within in Project Implementation Units.
This is aimed at promoting fairness and to align with international benchmarks like World Bank standards.
This job description directory contains key positions in Project Implementation Units (PIUs), including job purpose, reporting line, qualifications, years of experience, key skills, and competencies.
Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, says, “the salary and grading structure has been informed by international best practices, local remuneration benchmarks, existing public service frameworks, fiscal considerations as well as the need to ensure fairness in compensation recruitment across comparable positions and cadres.”
This Directory does not include the Key Result Areas or Deliverables for the specific roles, as the Project Managers will develop them for each project.
Some roles will be unique to projects; therefore, this Directory is not exhaustive but only provides a guide for developing other job descriptions for each project.
The Salaries range from UGX 1.8 million (entry-level drivers) to UGX 28 million (project managers), including uniform medical insurance of UGX 1.08 million per employee, with progression tied to contract extensions and performance matching role requirements.
“The Ministry pledges it’s continued support through policy oversight, resource allocation, and coordination to ensure that the objectives of streamlining pay and remuneration across all projects are achieved in a sustainable manner,” said the PSST.
Until now, remuneration for staff in PIUs and similar structures was not uniform or centrally regulated across projects.
The renumeration was otherwise donor-driven and typically negotiated and set individually within each project’s financing agreement, Project Operations Manual (POM), or terms of reference.
Major donors like the World Bank, African Development Bank, the European Union and other bilateral development partners, often influenced or approved the levels to attract qualified professionals while aligning with their own guidelines.
This therefore led to significant variation and disparities, with pay differing substantially between projects, even for similar roles like Project Manager, Financial Management Specialist or Procurement Specialist.
This led to inconsistencies across ministries, sectors, and funding sources, with higher-paying projects, depending of the donor and project size, offering packages far exceeding others, creating competition for talent and perceptions of unfairness.
“Top-up” or allowance-based enhancements — Many project implanting units are either civil servants or seconded from government, whose base pay come from public service scales, relatively low compared to project demands.
Projects frequently provide top-up allowances, bonuses, or full supplementary salaries funded by donor resources to make the positions attractive.
This “top-up” practice is said to contribute to “fragmentation” and sometimes distorted civil service incentives.
Studies and reviews including the World Bank analyses on financial management in health sector projects, and aid effectiveness assessments, says that that this fragmented approach raises costs, undermine country systems, create salary distortions, drain talent from regular civil service, and complicated oversight.
Another challenge that the new structure aims to tackle is the for PIUs which are often criticised for being disruptive, with staff earning significantly more than equivalent government roles.
The 2026 framework which commences July 1, 2026, according to directives and Circular Standing Instructions, addresses these issues by introducing a centralized, graded structure for 33 key PIU roles across projects.
It also sets different qualifications; academic and experience, with, for example, a Project Coordinator, being a commissioner or its equivalent if the Ministry does not have a commissioner to take on the role.
These should have “a relevant Honors Bachelor’s degree from a recognized University, and a relevant master’s degree from a recognized university, while certification in Project Management or its equivalent is of added advantage.
The number of years of experience is 15, of which five should have been in a Management orLeadership Role. Other skills and competencies required include demonstrated knowledge of and experience with the management of World Bank-funded projects or programs, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and ability to lead and work in a team.
This will earn UGX 24 million per month as starting salary, which, on review and contract extension at mid point, may be increased to 26 million, while the maximum, based on the match to the requirements of the role will be UGX 28 million.
Senior Accountants or equivalent will earn UGX 12 million at the start, UGX 14.4 million after midterm review and a maximum of UGX 17.9 million.
Others that fall under this scale are Senior Procurement Officer, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Technical Subject Expert, Environment Specialist, Social Development Specialist, Communications Specialist, and Senior Programme Officer, Field Operations Coordinator. Others are Gender Specialist, Refugee Specialist, Senior Legal Officer, GIS Specialist and Electricity Specialist.
The Grade 3 Category, will have officers’ salaries starting at UGX 4.5 million, rising to UGX 5.4 million after a midterm review, and a maximum of UGX 6.48 million. These include Procurement Officer, Accountant, and the IT Officer. Others are the Communications Officer, Legal Officer, Grant Officer, Livelihood Officer, Environment Officer, Social Safeguards Officer, Data Analyst, Gender Officer, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and Internal Officer.
Further down the ladder is Grade 4 (Project Implementation Staff or Assistant Level-Support Role), which features procurement assistant, accounts assistant, IT assistant and administrative assistant, who will earn UGX 2.8 million, which may be raised to UGX 3.36 on review and to a maximum UGX 4.2 million.
The Fleet Assistant or the driver, would earn UGX 1.8 million starting, UGX 2.1 million on review and to a maximum of UGX 2.5 million, based on the match to the requirements of the role.
All positions will attract an annual medical insurance of UGX 1,080,000 per employee and up to 4 dependants covered per annum, bringing the maximum cover total to UGX 5.4 million.
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