The former Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP), Mathias Mpuuga, has declined the National Unity Platform’s (NUP) call to resign his position as parliamentary commissioner.
Yesterday, NUP asked Mpuuga to resign after he was particularly fingered for having directly and personally received Shs500 million in cash.
He is at the centre of attention in an ongoing social media exhibition after leaked documentation revealed that Mpuuga and the other three parliamentary commissioners irregularly awarded themselves taxpayers’ money, christened the Service Award.
“My attention has been drawn to an unsigned document purportedly attributed to my party, the National Unity Platform, calling for my resignation, inter alia, based on falsehoods and terrible misapprehension of facts, including basic ones,” Mpuuga said.
He said the duties and roles of the Parliamentary Commission are well stipulated in the laws of the land and explained in basic language. An issue I shared and laboured to educate my comrades with whom we interacted in an informal conversation at the party offices.
LOP’s office takes care of the welfare of ordinary members and their leaders in Parliament, including determining the range of legally permissible payments, which may be salary, allowances, gratuity, honoraria, and car grants, among others. Every decision of the Commission to confer or reward anyone under its charge is subjected to the relevant committees of Parliament for legality, feasibility, sustainability, and relevancy.
He stated that to call any such payment corruption is the highest level of spite, double standards, and deliberate misrepresentation to the public and membership in the party on a purely selfish mission. If such payments amounted to corruption, all current and previous MPs would be compelled to refund to the public coffers monies paid as gratuity or honoraria since no MP, current or previous, was not paid gratuity at the determination of the parliamentary commission.
“The campaign to character assassinate me is deliberate, and I am perfectly aware. It’s well orchestrated and well-funded. I am ready for the worst if it takes this sacrifice to return sanity and common sense to our politics. I am available as ever to help this young party rid itself of any form of corruption from its rank and file, especially that ingrained at the base of the party,” he said.
“I accordingly decline the cowardly call on me to resign as a parliamentary commissioner, based on spite, envy, and deliberate misrepresentation. The general public is aware and alive to the internal intrigue and machinations unfortunately within this young party over the last two and a half years, during my occupation of the coveted office of the LOP. It became the official style of different party leaders to undermine my work, including the hiring of bloggers to abuse and insult my person,” he said.
