NRM Veterans Miss Sh2.2b

By Denis Ocwich GRATUITY cheques worth sh2.2b for 2,122 former National Resistance Army veterans in different districts have gone stale after their owners failed to pick them. The executive secretary of Uganda Veterans Assistance Board, Maj. Gen. Emilio Mondo, said on Friday that the expired cheques for the financial year 2000/01 were sent back to Kampala for review by the authorities. “We want to know before we issue any more cheques where these veterans are,” Mondo said. He said although they did not have an updated record about 3000 out of the 36,358 NRA veterans retrenched in the early 1990s, are known to have died countrywide. He said they also do not know how many have rejoined forces. Mondo hailed the Government for honoring its pledges by paying the ex-soldiers their packages, ranging from pensions, iron sheets to gratuities. He said the over all gratuity package for the demobilised soldiers is sh43.5b. Ends