The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, and a group of five Commissioners of Parliament are facing legal action in the Anti-Corruption Court regarding a contentious service award they allegedly received. The commissioners involved are Nyendo-Mukungwe MP Mathias Mpuuga, Bukooli County Central MP Solomon Silwany, Rubanda Woman MP Prossy Mbabazi Akampurira, and Zombo Woman MP Esther Afoyochan.
Allegations suggest that Mr Mpuuga, the former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, received Shs500m, while the other commissioners each received Shs400m as part of the service award. They are accused of various offenses, including money laundering, theft, obtaining money by pretense, cheating, conspiracy to effect unlawful purpose, and conspiracy to defraud.
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City lawyer Hassan Male Mabirizi, who is privately prosecuting the group, claims that the meeting where the commissioners approved the service award was unlawful, as it violated the Constitution and the Administration of Parliament Act. He argues that such an award should have been brought to Parliament by the government for deliberation.
Mr Mabirizi alleges that naming the payment a “one-time pay-off service award” was an attempt to conceal its illegality. He further accuses Mr Mpuuga of justifying the payment as lawful after it became public knowledge, claiming that the payments amount to money laundering offenses.
One of the charges, labeled as Count Seven, accuses the group of conspiring to defraud the public, Parliament, Consolidated Fund, and taxpayers of Shs1.7b through deceitful means as a one-time pay-off service award.
Mr Mabirizi is seeking criminal summonses against the accused group to face corruption charges and be committed to trial in the High Court. As of now, the case file is awaiting allocation to a judicial officer.
