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Kampala - More than 83 000 Ugandan government workers, including teachers and police, have not been paid, some for several months as the country grapples with a cash squeeze after aid cuts by Western donors, a government official said.
Analysts say the delayed salaries could deepen discontent and lead to public sector strikes at a time when the opposition plans protests similar to those held in 2011 in Kampala and other towns against rising food and fuel prices.
Late last year all of Uganda's major Western donors cut their aid contributions after it emerged that $13m of their funds had been stolen by officials.
In its 2013/14 (July-June) budget, Uganda imposed a range of new taxes including levies on kerosene and piped water to try to plug shortfalls left by the cuts.
"We had a shortfall of about 44bn shillings on our wage bill for the last financial year (2012/13) so some workers have not been paid their salary," Jim Mugunga, spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, said.
"The matter has been taken up by the cabinet and is being handled expeditiously and I believe these salaries will be paid soon."
A spokesperson for the police told Reuters they had missed June salaries while an official at the national teachers' union said some of their members had not been paid for three months.
Mugunga did not say what had caused the shortfalls and denied it was tied to the aid cuts.
A senior finance ministry official, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Reuters the cash squeeze resulted partly from suspension of aid and police budget being stretched by operations to prevent or quell opposition protests.
Since the 2011 protests, police have kept up intensive surveillance of Uganda's leading opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, and have arrested him on several occasions after breaking up his rallies.
"The liquidity crisis facing the government, beyond potentially triggering unrest, will force an increasing number of people to evaluate the viability of Museveni's policies," said Angelo Izama, Ugandan analyst at the US-based Open Society Foundation.
Museveni won local and international praise in the years after he took power in 1986 for stabilising the country and spurring economic growth.
The prospects of Uganda, east Africa's third largest economy, looked brighter still when explorers struck oil in 2006. Uganda has said it is aiming to start commercial output by 2016 at the earliest.
But the president has faced mounting criticism for what opponents say is an increasingly authoritarian style.
In May a private letter leaked to the media by army general David Sejusa called for investigations into an alleged plot to kill some government officials who opposed Museveni's suspected plans to have his son succeed him.
His son, Muhoozi Kaineruganba, is a brigadier in the army and is in charge of a powerful elite force responsible for protecting the president and strategic assets, including the crude reserves in the Albertine region along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"This is not a salary crisis, it's a political crisis because their corruption and extravagance is catching up with them," Mathias Mpuuga, an opposition legislator, told Reuters.
Analysts say the delayed salaries could deepen discontent and lead to public sector strikes at a time when the opposition plans protests similar to those held in 2011 in Kampala and other towns against rising food and fuel prices.
Late last year all of Uganda's major Western donors cut their aid contributions after it emerged that $13m of their funds had been stolen by officials.
In its 2013/14 (July-June) budget, Uganda imposed a range of new taxes including levies on kerosene and piped water to try to plug shortfalls left by the cuts.
"We had a shortfall of about 44bn shillings on our wage bill for the last financial year (2012/13) so some workers have not been paid their salary," Jim Mugunga, spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, said.
"The matter has been taken up by the cabinet and is being handled expeditiously and I believe these salaries will be paid soon."
A spokesperson for the police told Reuters they had missed June salaries while an official at the national teachers' union said some of their members had not been paid for three months.
Mugunga did not say what had caused the shortfalls and denied it was tied to the aid cuts.
A senior finance ministry official, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Reuters the cash squeeze resulted partly from suspension of aid and police budget being stretched by operations to prevent or quell opposition protests.
Since the 2011 protests, police have kept up intensive surveillance of Uganda's leading opposition figure, Kizza Besigye, and have arrested him on several occasions after breaking up his rallies.
"The liquidity crisis facing the government, beyond potentially triggering unrest, will force an increasing number of people to evaluate the viability of Museveni's policies," said Angelo Izama, Ugandan analyst at the US-based Open Society Foundation.
Museveni won local and international praise in the years after he took power in 1986 for stabilising the country and spurring economic growth.
The prospects of Uganda, east Africa's third largest economy, looked brighter still when explorers struck oil in 2006. Uganda has said it is aiming to start commercial output by 2016 at the earliest.
But the president has faced mounting criticism for what opponents say is an increasingly authoritarian style.
In May a private letter leaked to the media by army general David Sejusa called for investigations into an alleged plot to kill some government officials who opposed Museveni's suspected plans to have his son succeed him.
His son, Muhoozi Kaineruganba, is a brigadier in the army and is in charge of a powerful elite force responsible for protecting the president and strategic assets, including the crude reserves in the Albertine region along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"This is not a salary crisis, it's a political crisis because their corruption and extravagance is catching up with them," Mathias Mpuuga, an opposition legislator, told Reuters.
