Kampala, (UG):- The High Court in Kampala has ruled that the Shs500 million service award to the former Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Hon Mathias Mpuuga and the Shs400 million awarded to three commissioners, was legal and part of the national budget approved by Parliament.
“In my view, it is probably not right for this Court to inquire into the procedure which the Executive and Parliament adopted while exercising their respective functions. One would expect that both bodies scrutinised the specific payments to be made, but that is beyond the ambit of this application. The oversight power of this Court in this matter remains focused on the procedure that the respondent followed in arriving at the decision on the service award, notwithstanding that the money used to pay for the impugned award was part of the national budget,” Justice Douglas Karekona Singiza ruled in an August 25 court ruling.
He added; “the decision, dated 6 May 2022, to award the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (Hon. Matthias Mpuuga) Shs 500,000,000, and three other Commissioners UGX 400,000,000 each, as a service award was approved by Parliament and formed part of the budget presented by the executive as required by the Public Finance Management Act”.
According to Justice Karekona, the allowances of Mpuuga and three commissioners, all belonging to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), was determined by the commission with the approval of Parliament as prescribed by Section 42 of the Administration of the Parliament Act (AOPA).
The court further ruled that the service award was approved by Parliament in the Appropriation Bill under the title ‘Ex-gratia for political leaders.’
The judge emphasised: “The impugned [questioned] payment was approved by parliament in the Appropriation Bill under the title ‘Ex-gratia for Political Leaders… the fact that this vote formed part of the Appropriations Act is proof that the Minister of Finance had the opportunity to scrutinize the payment and that Parliament approved the ex-gratia vote.”
The court however ordered the Secretary to the Treasury to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the Clerk to Parliament, Adolf Mwesigye, for his role in the decision-making and implementation process of these contested service awards.
Parliament awarded Shs 500 million to former LOP Mathias Mpuuga and Shs 400 million each to commissioners Solomon Silwany (MP Bukooli county central), Prossy Mbabazi (DW MP Rubanda) and Esther Afoyochan (Zombo DW MP).
The service award raised controversy in parliament and in the public prompting some legislators to call for the censure of all beneficiaries of the service award.
The National Unity Platform (NUP), the political party Mr Mpuuga belongs to, attempted to recall him as a commissioner but lacked the mandate to do so.
Mr Mpuuga and his fellow commissioners can only be removed through a successful censure motion, which MP Ssekikubo is attempting despite resistance from the NRM Chief Whip in Parliament, Mr Hamson Obua, who recently directed NRM MPs not to sign the censure motion.
Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga county), the leader of the censure motion handed over the motion signed by 189 members of parliament to censure the commissioners to the clerk to parliament Adolf Mwesigwa.
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