Ex-spies, AG for final submissions in sh29b battle

By Andante Okanya

EX-SPIES of the Internal Security Organisation and the Attorney General (AG) currently locked in a payment dispute of sh29b owed to the former, have been instructed to file final written submissions.

Justice Stephen Musota of the civil division of the High Court in Kampala, ordered the parties to file the submissions, from which he will derive his ruling.

The ex-spies’ lawyer Kabiito Karamagi, is expected to file the submissions by next year January 12, and serve the AG by then.

The AG is expected to file his by January 27, and serve Karamagi on the same date. In the event of a rejoinder by Karamagi, it is must be filed by February 3.

Court had convened to get a status report from the AG’s chambers on whether payment of the sh29b balance was being finalised.

But it was only Karamagi, who was present. The AG’s representative state attorney Geoffrey Madete, was absent.

Subsequently, Karamagi requested that the parties be allowed to file written submissions, noting that in the previous court appearance on December 2, Madete stated that he would give court a status report from the AG.

This year on September 17, the ex-spies, under the body of Uganda Veterans Internal Security Organization (UVETISO), petitioned court to compel government to complete payment of a balance of sh29b.

Initially, government had paid them sh10b out of a total of sh39b as terminal benefits to the demobilised officers.

However, further payments were halted when the IGG Irene Mulyagonja, instituted a probe into the matter following a petition by a whistle-blower.

She issued an order directing the ministry of finance to suspend any further payments, pending the outcome of the probe.

But the IGG’s bid to be a respondent in the case has since been rejected by the court. Musota said the IGG as a government entity, only enjoys special status, with the corporate status a preserve of the AG who is the principal legal representative and advisor to government.

FACT FILE

Court in March this year, following a suit filed in 2005 by three former ISO operatives – Jeff Lawrence Kiwanuka, Jamal Kitandwe and Bernard Kamugisha on behalf of 500 others, awarded the former employees sh72.4b in terms of gratuity/terminal benefits and allowances, finally reduced to sh39b.

In the suit, the former employees challenged their sacking. The former employees were demobilised in in 1994, in a move dubbed as a restructuring exercise.

However, the laid off operatives contended in their case that “their removal was in breach of their employment” and that “they were denied terminal or severance packages and suffered losses and damages.”

In his ruling Justice Okumu Wengi ordered that the former ISO operatives be awarded costs of the suit and that they are entitled to gratuity, medical and transport allowances, sh500,000 each in damages and a 10% interest on monetary awards.