By Spy Uganda
Kampala: Troubled former leader of the opposition (LoP) Mathias Mpuuga has resigned as parliamentary commissioner after he was particularly singled out for having directly and personally received UGX 500 million cash reward.
According National Unity Platform (NUP) leadership, there is grand corruption on the side of NRM leaders and some leaders on the opposition side have also had serious allegations of corruption leveled against them.
”On Wednesday 28th February 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” reads part of the statement from NUP.
”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 on the pretext of “Service Awards”. Under the scheme, Rt. Hon. Mpuuga was allocated 500,000,000/= (Five Hundred Million Uganda Shillings)” the statement added.
Mpuuga who was recently sacked by his party as LoP became the center of attention in an ongoing social media protest under the hashtag #UgandaParliamentExhibition after leaked documentation revealed that Mpuuga together with other three parliamentary commissioners irregularly awarded themselves taxpayers’ money christened as “Service Award.” Mpuuga was personally allocated 500 million.
According to NUP, Mpuuga’s corruption and abuse of office are contrary to the values of integrity, discipline, reliability, inclusiveness, integrity, patriotism and service.
It remains to be seen if the #UgandaParliamentExhibition which aims to expose corruption, and abuse of office in parliament will claim more opposition figures as several others have been exposed as practicing glaring nepotism in their offices, a common vice that they accuse President Museveni of.
It should be noted that there has been brewing tension between the NUP leadership and Mpuuga for some time over his alleged closeness to the speaker of parliament Anita Among, who, equally has been accused of siphoning public funds at will.
