Activists in Uganda recently brought to light Mpuuga’s participation in what has been dubbed a ‘service award’ scheme, whereby he reportedly received the hefty sum after serving only two years. This revelation has sparked outrage among citizens.
The decision to grant this ‘service award’ was made during a meeting of the Parliamentary Commission on May 6, 2022, held in the Speaker’s boardroom at the Parliament Building.
Mpuuga was among those present during the meeting, which resolved to award a one-time payment of Shs 500 million to the Leader of Opposition and an additional payment of Shs 400 million to backbench Parliament commissioners.
Below is the full statement from NUP:
“There is an ongoing online protest under the hashtag #UgandaParliamentExhibition. The protest aims to expose the massive corruption, abuse of office, and gross mismanagement of public affairs by the leadership of Parliament and other leaders.
Unfortunately, the protest has not only revealed grand corruption on the side of NRM leaders. Some leaders on the opposition side have had serious allegations of corruption leveled against them.
Specifically, our former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and current Parliamentary Commissioner, Rt. Hon. Mathias Mpuuga, alongside three other Parliamentary Commissioners, have been accused of irregularly awarding themselves huge sums of taxpayers’ money under the pretext of ‘Service Awards.’
Under the scheme, Rt. Hon. Mpuuga was allocated 500,000,0001= (Five Hundred Million Uganda Shillings).
On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, the President convened an urgent meeting comprised of senior leaders of the Party, including all Deputy Presidents and some of our senior legislators.
At the meeting, Rt. Hon. Mpuuga admitted that he indeed took part in this wrongdoing and apologized for the same.
In light of this, he was strongly advised that the moral thing to do in the circumstances is to step down from his role as Parliamentary Commissioner with immediate effect.
The nation will recall that the values of the National Unity Platform are Discipline, Reliability, Inclusiveness, Integrity, Patriotism, and Service.
All actions of corruption and abuse of office go contrary to these values. They also go contrary to the Integrity Oath which every leader of the Party swore at the start of this term.
We, therefore, ask our leaders at all levels to do self-reflection and recommit themselves to these values and the Oath they took to shun and fight corruption in all its forms.”