Govt struggles to pay 79,000 UPDF veterans

Kampala. The Ministry of Defence has commissioned a task force to document at least 79,000 army veterans who have not been paid their pension and gratuity arrears worth Shs500b.
The State Minister for Veteran Affairs, Col Bright Rwamirama, said yesterday that government is planning to pay all the money within two years.
“Despite the challenges, government is committed to ensuring the elimination of the pension case backlog by 2020,” he said.
But according to the Defence budget framework of 2019/2020, the pension arrears are not among the priorities yet they constitute the biggest component of the ministry’s arrears.
Building military hospital in Mbuya, acquiring and maintaining military hardware, recruitment and training of LDUs, salaries and food for soldiers are the Defence priorities in the next financial year.
If the money is allocated as Col Rwamirama said, the Defence budget will increase from the Shs1.9trillion in this financial year to Shs2.4trillion.
In this financial year, Ministry of Finance provided Shs300b to clear all government outstanding arrears and promised to provide the same amount in the next financial year.
The Ministry of Defence might face more difficulty to pay this money because Finance ministry has cut the defence budget by Shs123b in the next financial year.
Col Rwamirama said the numbers of unpaid veterans including those that served in the previous governments have accumulated to 79,084 because of lack of enough money to pay them.
“The key constraints that have hindered progress in this regard include adequate resources for payment of military pensions and gratuities and incomplete or inadequate records that are required to process the payments,” he said.
The minister said so far more than 5,000 veterans have been paid.