AG, IGG row over ex-spies pay

KAMPALA - A row has erupted between the Attorney General (AG) and the Inspector General of Government (IGG) over a sh39b benefits payment to former Internal Security Organisation (ISO) employees.

 

The IGG instituted a probe and blocked further payments, setting the stage for a huge clash.

 

Of the money, sh10b has already been paid Uganda Veterans of ISO (UVETISO) Association following a consent order, but the IGG has blocked the finance ministry from making any further payments, pending completion of its probe citing alleged irregularities.

 

On August 22, the IGG wrote to the finance ministry, stopping further payments, following a complaint by a whistleblower, alleging that there are irregularities.

 

However, the AG has contested the actions of the IGG, dismissing them as ultra-vires, saying they are riddled with illegalities and fraud.

 

In a brief, the AG, citing a Supreme Court decision in Gordon Sentiba and others versus the IGG argues that the IGG is not a legal entity that can sue or be sued in civil matters like this one, terming the actions of the IGG as tantamount to usurpation of powers of the AG.

 

The spat between the two follows a petition by Ligomarc Advocates to the Attorney General dated October 21, bringing the matter to the attention of the AG, citing affidavits prepared and filed by the IGG with regard to the matter.

 

They also raised an objection to government institutions preparing and filing pleadings. Ligomarc raised issue with six affidavits, four of them prepared and filed by the legal department of the IGG. They also raised issue with two affidavits drawn and filed by the IGG, but presented as drawn by the AG.

 

 In an affidavit before the High Court, the IGG, Irene Mulyagonja said some ISO operatives that were supposed to receive these terminal benefits have raised a red flag arguing that the compensation process was hijacked by “a syndicate of crooks”.

 

“A syndicate of crooks involving civil servants at strategic ministries and lawyers intended to defraud former employees of ISO of their terminal benefits through an association known as UVETISO Association Ltd,” she said.

 

But in his brief, the AG notes that the IGG is not a legal entity in civil matters and as such has no powers to draw pleadings or affidavits or file them subsequently and “therefore has no jurisdiction in matters relating to private individuals and how they deal with their finances.”

 

“This is despite the fact that the finance dealt may have been received from the Government,” the brief reads. It adds that the IGG under the IGG Act 2002, “has no power to investigate how legitimate payments by the Government are spent by private individuals on receipt from government.”

 

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The Inspector General of Government (IGG) rene Mulyagonja

 

In the brief, the AG notes that the payments were made by the Government to the former ISO employees pursuant to a court order.

 

He argued that given that the IGG is not a legal entity in civil matters, it cannot draw pleadings, affidavits or later file them in civil matters as such matters must be guided by the AG.

 

“This is forgery, abuse of the process of court and misrepresentation amounting to a criminal act for which the IGG can be prosecuted before the courts of law,” it reads.

 

However, the IGG when contacted said it was aware of the development. “We have not received it but when we do we shall respond to it,” Munira Ali, the spokesperson of the IGG said.

 

In the Sentiba case ruling on August 17, 2010, the retired Supreme Court, Judge JWN Tsekooko stated: “I maintain most stoutly that giving the IGG powers to interfere with judicial decisions would be a recipe for chaos in the judiciary and such powers would undermine the very foundation of the independence of the judiciary.”

 

Court in March awarded the former employees sh72.4b in terms of gratuity/ terminal benefits and allowances, following a suit filed in 2005 by three former ISO operatives — Jeff Kiwanuka, Jamal Kitamdwe and Bernard Kamugisha on behalf of 500 others.

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

The Government computed the costs and came up with sh72b. Later Frank Tumwebaze, the minister in charge of the Presidency on the prompting of President Yoweri Museveni held several meetings with the leadership of the laid off former ISO staff and agreed on sh39b.

 

However, following concerted negotiations by the Government, the employees agreed to be paid sh39,189,499,715 as full and final settlement of which sh10b was paid on June 18 to the UVETISO account and later disbursed.

 

Documents that the New Vision has seen indicate that UVETISO was formed and duly incorporated on the prompting of government as a vehicle through which the money would be paid so as to ensure that the beneficiaries are not cheated.