Inside the stormy NUP meeting that saw Mpuuga dropped over Shs500m scandal

Kampala, (UG): The Opposition National Unity Platform has announced that Masaka-Mukungwe Nyendo MP, Hon Mathias Mpuuga has agreed to step down as parliamentary commissioner over corruption and abuse of office.

Mpuuga’s suspension follows an investigation into the shs500m corruption scandal in which he and three other commissioners were implicated.

The NUP in a statement on Thursday evening said Hon Mpuuga, who is the former Leader of the Opposition and currently Deputy Party President in the Buganda Region came under the limelight in the ongoing social media activism exposing the corrupt parliament officials where he was implicated.

Running under the hashtag #UgandaParliamentExhibition, the campaign spearheaded by cartoonist Jimmy Spire Ssentongo aims at exposing the massive corruption, abuse of office and gross mismanagement of public affairs by the leadership of Parliament and other leaders.

Reports indicate that during his reign as LoP, Hon Mpuuga allegedly designed a financial scheme which saw him pocket the staggering Shs 500m categorized as a ‘service award’ for his two years in office. 

The award is said to have passed during a meeting of the Parliamentary Commission held on May 6, 2022, in the Speaker’s boardroom to discuss the ‘service award review of elected benefits of the leader of opposition and backbench commissioners’. 

The meeting resolved to grant a ‘one-time pay-off service award of Shs 500m for the Leader of Opposition’ and another pay-off of Shs 400m to the backbench Parliament commissioners.

One of the terms of the pay-off was it would not change ‘regardless of the length of tenure of office.’

The highly secretive meeting is said to have been organized by Speaker Anita Among, joined by LOP Mathias Mpuuga and Parliament commissioners, Solomon Silwany, Prossy Akampurira Mbabazi and Esther Afoyochan.

The Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa. Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja and Finance Minister Matia Kasaija did not attend the meeting, despite being invited.

Corruption and Abuse of Office

Following the implication of their former LoP, the National Unity Platform in a statement on Thursday acknowledged knowing of the scandal and said a meeting of the top leaders in the party including the Principal Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, the Spokesperson and current LoP Joel Ssenyonyi among others was convened to ascertain the truths behind the allegations.

In the meeting, NUP said Hon Mpuuga alongside three other Parliamentary Commissioners accused of irregularly awarding themselves huge sums of tax-payers money on the pretext of “Service Awards” admitted to receiving the sums of money.

“…At the meeting, Rt. Hon. Mpuuga admitted that he indeed took part in this wrongdoing and apologised 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,” a statement from NUP reads in part.

“The nation will recall that the values of the National Unity Platform are Discipline, Reliability, Inclusiveness, Integrity, Patriotism and Service,” the statement added.

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According to NUP, “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.”

It should be noted that NUP President, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi on December 22, 2023, sacked Mpuuga, replacing him with Ssenyonyi following public outcries that the then leader of the opposition was meddling in political affairs with the ruling NRM party.

However, NUP in a Thursday statement emphasized that; “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.”