Court rejects IGG bid in ex-spies sh29b case
Nov 18, 2014
The High Court in Kampala has rejected a bid by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) to be joined as a party in a case where ex-spies of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) are demanding sh29b from government.
By Steven Candia and Andante Okanya
The High Court in Kampala has rejected a bid by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) to be joined as a party in a case where ex-spies of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) are demanding sh29b from government.
Yesterday, presiding judge Stephen Musota rejected the IGG’s bid on grounds that the Inspectorate does not enjoy statutory corporate status to sue and be sued.
The court had convened for the hearing of an application filed by the IGG to be joined to the Attorney General (AG) as a party to the case.
The IGG had wanted to be co-respondent with the AG, arguing that it would enable court effectively resolve the dispute.
The former spies were represented by Kabiito Karamagi, while the IGG’s legal team comprised of Vincent Kasujja and Salome Mwanja.
The main case arose when the ex-spies, under the body of Uganda Veterans Internal Security Organization (UVETISO) petitioned court to compel government to complete payment of a balance of sh29b.
Initially government had paid them sh10b out of a total of sh39b as terminal benefits to the demobilized officers.
However, halted further payments after the IGG launched a probe into the matter following a petition and issued an order directing the ministry of finance to suspend any further payments, pending the outcome of the probe.
In his ruling, Musota said the IGG only enjoys special status. He explained that the corporate status is a preserve of the Attorney General (AG) who is the principal legal advisor to government.
“The IGG is not a necessary party in the matter. The IGG can participate through affidavit. The AG is mandated to carry the IGG’s cross. The applicant cannot be added for lack of locus standi,” Musota said.
Accordingly, the application was dismissed with costs awarded to the ex-spies. But Kasujja, through an oral application, requested that the case be temporarily halted to enable the IGG file a reference for Constitutional interpretation at the Constitutional Court.
“The Constitutional reference will enable the Constitutional Court to interpret constitutional functions for both offices of the AG and the IGG,” Kasujja said.
However, Karamagi opposed the application, saying it was another delaying tactic by the IGG, yet the court had already made a pronouncement and the matter had been decided in an earlier Supreme Court ruling.
“The application is another waste of time. I pray that the application be declined. The applicant does not have locus to raise it anyway,” Karamagi stated. The judge said a ruling on the bid to halt the case, would be delivered on December 2.
Court in March this year following a suit filed in 2005 by three former ISO operatives– Jeff Lawrence Kiwanuka, Jamal Kitamdwe and Bernard Kamugisha on behalf of 500 others awarded the former employees sh72.4b in terms of gratuity/ terminal benefits and allowances, finally reduced to sh39b .
In the suit the former employees challenged their sacking. The former employees were demobilized in 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 percent interest on monetary awards.