Parliament Clerk defends Mpuuga’s sh500m service award
Mar 04, 2024
“The payment, if made today or tomorrow, is legal and proper," said the Clerk.
Adolf Mwesige, Clerk to Parliament during a Press briefing where he defended former LOP. (File Photos)
Umar Kashaka
Journalist @New Vision
________________ Former Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LOP), Mathias Mpuuga.
The Clerk to Parliament, Adolf Mwesige, has defended the service award of shillings 500 million that was given to the former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LOP), Mathias Mpuuga.
“The payment, if made today or tomorrow, is legal and proper. It is also budgeted for because that budget which gives a service award is approved by Parliament and the Executive,” he told New Vision online on Monday, March 4, 2024.
He termed the pay ‘akasiimo', meaning a token of appreciation.
“The office of LOP is a constitutional office. Although there is a lacuna in the law, the Parliamentary Commission has powers under the Administration of Parliament Act to determine the benefits and allowances of LOP and other MPs, including the vice president and prime minister,” he said.
Asked why all Mpuuga’s predecessors (former leaders of the opposition) were not given this service award, Mwesige, a former MP, said: “The Bible itself says there is time for everything. When I joined Parliament in 1996, Speakers were not entitled to a pension. Even MPs were not paid by the Parliamentary Commission because it wasn’t there, but a time came when the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and MPs were awarded a pension.”
He also argued that a time also came when the law was amended and the former Speakers of Parliament including Francis Butagira and Prof. Edward Rugumayo were also given pensions and vehicles.
“So a time came when the Parliamentary Commission in exercising its powers under the Administration of Parliament Act decided to give a service award (akasiimo) to LOP in 2022. So if the former leaders of the opposition were not given a service ward, the Parliamentary Commission then did not take a decision but the Parliamentary Commission of the 11th Parliament found it wise to give a service award to LOP,” the Clerk, who is a seasoned lawyer, said.
Yet to be paid
Mpuuga, who is also the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP, said on Saturday (March 2) that he was yet to receive a one-off service award of sh500m for serving as LOP from June 2021 to January 2024.
The money has whipped up a storm in his own National Unity Platform (NUP) party and is threatening to split it up.
“I haven’t got the money and I am waiting for it because I deserve to receive the token of appreciation. I am not corrupt and I have never ‘eaten’ any taxpayer’s money. The Parliamentary Commission did everything within the law,” he said while appearing on one of the Luganda morning radio talk shows in Kampala.
In May 2022, the commission, which is the top decision-making organ of Parliament, considered and approved a one-time pay-off service award of sh500m for the LOP and sh400m for each of the backbench commissioners.
However, his party president, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, still claimed on Saturday that “this money-heist was illegal, immoral and wrong, and unexpected from a person we delegated to represent our values in Parliament and lead the charge against corruption and misuse of public resources”.
In a long statement posted on his account of X, formerly Twitter, Kyagulanyi asked what was special about the service of Mpuuga to warrant a service award that was never given to his predecessors.
“Secondly, even if Hon. Mpuuga and the three NRM [National Resistance Movement] Parliamentary Commissioners had done anything exceptional, would it be up to them to sit and award themselves for a job well done?” he asked.
“I mean, it defeats basic logic for anyone to say they are awarding themselves- moreover with hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money. Does that mean that every public servant should now sit in his office and allocate some money to themselves for feeling good about themselves and the work they do?” he further asked.
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