Parliament okays Shs500m ‘service award’ to retiring AG Muwanga

Parliament Tuesday resolved to determine the post-retirement benefits of the Auditor General (AG) with an amendment which includes a one-off ‘service award’ of Shs500 million to outgoing senior officer John Muwanga.

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According to the adopted motion presented by finance state minister Henry Musasizi, on top of the lump sum Sh500 million, a retired AG shall be entitled to a life-time monthly salary payment which is equivalent to that of the sitting officer and a fully furnished house.

“The Auditor General shall, on retirement from office be granted a chauffeur driven car or a one-off payment of 20, 000 currency points (Shs400million) payable in lieu of the car [and] security provided by the state,” Musasizi said.

Other benefits include fuel and vehicle repair allowances of 100 currency points [Shs2 million) per month and an official burial by the state upon death.

With exception of the lump sum Shs500 million ‘service award’, all other retirements shall apply to the subsequent retired Auditor Generals.

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Initially, the Auditor General’s retirement benefits did not include the service award but an amendment to include the reward of Shs1 billion was proposed by Budadiri West legislator Nathan Nandala Mafabi on Tuesday.

Mafabi argued that outgoing Auditor General Muwanga “has served diligently for his 20 years in office.”

“I have not heard about a handshake…what are we paying him as he is going? I want to move an amendment that we give Muwanga 50, 000 currency points (Shs1 billion) for his handshake to go home,” Mafabi said.

He further emphasized that “the justification is that he takes home Shs50 million as a handshake for every year he has worked.”

Although Musasizi agreed with Mafabi’s handshake suggestion, the minister proposed Shs500 million as a reward to the auditor general.

This was supported by other legislators who included Jonathan Odur, Betty Ethel Nayima, Wilson Kajwengye and Anthony Akol.

However, the legislators expressed need to put in place a standard formula on how to determine a service award to retired auditor generals and all other civil servants.

“Now that we are setting a new trend of 'service award'….the best thing would be to decide a formula that is adoptable to the office rather than taking as a personal to holder,” Kampala Central Member of Parliament (MP) Muhammed Nsereko remarked.

Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) Joel Ssenyonyi unsuccessfully challenged the allocation of the service award to the retiring auditor general, saying “it is wrong to negotiate individual service awards without a clear formula in place.”

“I’m opposed to this service award because that means that each time we are going to be discussing awards for individual officers,” he argued.

Muwanga is expected to retire from his position in 2024, in accordance with Uganda’s retirement age cap.