Ex-PM Mbabazi entitled to sh2.1m pension

 

KAMPALA - Former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi once said he was not finished and indeed he is not, especially in the wallet.

 

Besides receiving over sh20m as the MP for Kinkizi West, Mbabazi will also be getting another sh2.1m and a chain of other benefits as a former premier.

 

The legislators of the Eighth Parliament enacted and passed the Emoluments and Benefits of the President, Vice-President and Prime- Ministers Bill.

 

The bill was signed into an Act by President Yoweri Museveni in 2010.

 

According to the Act, Mbabazi is entitled to a monthly stipend equivalent to 60% of the gross salary of the serving Prime Minister.

 

Saturday Vision has learnt that a serving premier earns a gross salary of sh3.5m and other benefits including a subsistence allowance of sh4.5m and sh3.2m in telephone bills.

 

Mbabazi is also entitled to medical care, a house purchased for him in an upscale area and a chauffeur-driven car, among other benefits.

 

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Service Jonas Tumwine, said the ministry was waiting for Mbabazi to submit his application for the benefits.

 

“And if money is available, we shall pay him,” Tumwine said.

 

It is not clear whether Mbabazi will apply for the money, and efforts to reach him for a comment were futile. Mbabazi was relieved of his duties in September.

 

There was talk that Mbabazi’s underground activities were breeding internal disunity in the party.

 

According to the Act, Mbabazi’s wife Jacqueline is also entitled to benefits after her husband’s death. The benefits include the sh2.1m the husband gets.

 

She is also entitled to one domestic staff and a chauffeur-driven car. Mbabazi becomes another senior government official who is receiving a salary on one hand and retirement benefits on the other.

 

Others are former Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya, Vice- President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi who received his benefits as a former Speaker of the Eighth Parliament and the current Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, who was former deputy speaker.