MPs not paid in two months

The Uganda Parliament has been hit by a financial crisis which has led to nonpayment of allowances for Members of Parliament.

Accordingly, members of parliament received their basic salaries, but none has received allowances for the last two months.

MPs earn Shs11m as basic salary and several allowances including; Subsistence allowance of Shs4.5m, gratuity of Shs1m, town running allowance of Shs1m, committee and plenary allowances of Shs50,000 and 150,000 respectively.

Other allowances include; Medical allowances of about shs500,000 and accommodation for some MPs and Mileage allowance.

Parliament Director of Communications, Chris Obore confirmed that indeed MPs have not received their pay but the clerk is working towards resolving the issue.

“We have not been able to process the members’ emoluments for this month, but the clerk to parliament is looking at all the established possibilities to have the matter resolved,” Obore said.

With the MPs not paid and several of them heavily indebted, the House business has been affected as most of them have no morale to attend committee meetings.

“Everyone (MP) has conviction to serve the country, a delay would not hurt morale so much but it inconveniences planning,” Obore said.

According to the parliament management, a letter has been issued to different banks to be patient with indebted legislators.

Another source indicated to Nile Post that the delay was as a result of a move by legislators to increase their salaries by over 100%. Nile Post however cannot reliably confirm this.

In a report by daily monitor in May, legislators chose to increase their salaries from Shs 11m to Shs24m, but parliament refuted the contents of the report.

Ministry of Finance would also later indicate that the proposal by members of parliament if true was absurd and that there is no such money to pay MPs.