I gave out Shs400m service award to women groups - MP Mbabazi

RUBANDA | Rubanda District Woman parliamentarian Prossy Mbabazi has finally admitted receiving the controversial 'service award' but says she gave it out to women's groups in her constituency.

Ms Mbabazi and three backbench commissioners Mathias Mpuuga, Esther Afoyochan and Solomon Silwany are facing intense scrutiny of the taxpayer disillusioned by a fireball of corruption in the country's legislature.

“I received the Shs400 million and gave it to the people," she said during a belated Women's Day celebration in Rubanda on Friday.

"I had all the liberty to use that money for my personal gains but I didn’t do that, I gave that money to the people because I know how important my people are."

While the National Unity Platform said after the expose that Mpuuga had admitted wrongdoing and apologised, nothing has been heard from Zombo Woman MP Afoyochan or Bukhooli Central's Silwany on the award scandal.

Mr Mpuuga himself sensationally denied he made any admission and has since defended the award at the cost of his deputy president position in the majority Opposition party.

The Rubanda Woman MP decided to come out of the corruption closet nearly four months after an expose that the commissioners received a total of Shs1.7 billion as a person to holder allowance.

The public has been up in arms over the controversial award that former Leader of the Opposition Mathias Mpuuga claims was a deserving gratuity.

The four legislators are facing censure from the Parliamentary Commission over the alleged illicit enrichment. They have avoided addressing themselves on the issue even as their voters bayed for their blood.

But after Nyendo Mukungwe MP Mpuuga failed to eat the palms of his own voters in Masaka with snubs from the Catholic Church and Mengo, legislators appeared to have realised that the issue could cost them their seats come 2026.

Ms Mbabazi, for instance, has watched as her voters raise protest placards and political rivals beat the drums - she had to come out.

Speaking at Kacerere playground in Bufundi Sub-county, she said the noise around the controversial service award as well as the ongoing censure process are all political gimmicks.

“Its politics at hand, I don’t know what they want but I didn’t even take Shs2,000 on that money," she said.

"When you move through the district, they will give accountability for that money. We had a meeting and the commission is not only made up by only four commissioners, it’s a parliamentary commission."

Ms Mbabazi said Lwemiyaga County MP Theodore Ssekikubo and others leading the censure motion against her are merely politicking from the service award and urged them to "stop fighting and unite parliament".

"I have never stolen money, this is money that came from the Ministry of Finance into my account," she said.

"I put it in the community and it is doing wonders. When you consult the women, they have really gotten money in their savings and they are developing."

Meanwhile, the State Minister for Finance Henry Musasizi said leaders who engage in stealing from the taxpayer do not invest in issues surrounding their constituencies.

Mr Musasizi, who was the chief guest at the event, said it is high time the MPs champion government programmes.

“Why do you think these MPs steal money? It's because they carried on their heads issues of constituency but if they champion different government programmes, it would be better,” added Musasizi, also the Rubanda East MP.