Matembe Opposes Kasujja Package

By Hamis Kaheru ETHICS state minister Mrs. Miria Matembe yesterday said she was “crying and bleeding” over the decision to award full retirement benefits to former Electoral Commission (EC) chairman Hajji Aziz Kasujja and five other commissioners sacked on Wednesday for incompetence and mismanagement.“You don’t know how much I am bleeding. I am not in line with giving these people anything. They should be prosecuted. If court finds them clean, they are left free,” Matembe said. But she hastened to add that while she was opposed to paying the send-off packages, she had no powers to block it.“The President has the discretion to take action and he must have considered a number of factors to reach the decision to give them benefits. If he had asked me, I would say goba ebyasire (sack them with disgrace),” she said.Kasujja, his deputy Mrs. Florence Nkurukenda, commissioners Charles Dickens Owiny, Ted Wamusi, Robert Kitariko and Hadija Nassanga Miiro were “retired in public interest” following investigative reports by the IGG and CID which revealed mismanagement of public funds, impropriety and incompetence.Matembe disagreed with EC acting head Sr. Margaret Magoba who said the commissioners deserved the sh80m each because they worked hard to promote democracy. “Everybody goes on his or her job to promote democracy. Do you know how much we suffer here (in the ministry)? We work on the minimum. When you make the Government lose billions of shillings, what democracy have you promoted?“Look at the photographic voter’s card project (PVC) in which sh24b was sunk to stop rigging. Where are the cards?” she asked.Matembe sighted a report by the IGG which revealed irregular award of the sh2b deal to the South Africa-based company, Lithotec, to print ballot papers for LC elections, and another report about sh800m which was shared by EC officials.“All this does not include the PVC project which was originally sh12b and later increased to sh24b. These people amassed wealth through insider trading and commissions of tenders awarded irregularly,” she said.“My objective is to make corruption highly risky. But the way we are treating people who abuse their offices is not making the misconduct risky. In fact it motivates others,” she said.She said, “I feel defeated and demotivated in my battle when after investigating and finding evidence such people are dismissed and then we reward them. I don’t know whether I still have the spirit to fight on.” Matembe wondered if the commissioners would refund the gratuity if further investigations led to their prosecution.She said she was not surprised because several officials, including permanent secretaries, involved in previous corruption cases have got full benefits.Ends