By The former Leader of Opposition, Mr Mathias Mpuuga has said he will not resign from his current Parliamentary commissioner position, contending that the advice from his party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), to do so is based on falsehoods and “terrible misapprehension of facts.”
NUP officials on Thursday evening asked the party deputy president (Buganda region) to step down barely three months after he was appointed as parliamentary commissioner.
This was on allegations of corruption and abuse of office
However, in a Friday statement, the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP dismissed claims that he received Shs500 million ‘service award’ from Parliament fraudulently.
According to him, the money was allocated to him legally by a Commission in his capacity as a Leader of Opposition after being subjected to the relevant committees of Parliament for legality, feasibility, sustainability and relevancy.
“To call any such payments corruption is the highest level of spite, double standards and deliberate misrepresentation to the public and membership of the Party on a purely selfish mission,” Mpuuga’s statement read in part.
“I accordingly decline the cowardly call on me to resign as a parliamentary Commissioner, based on spite, envy and deliberate misrepresentation,” it added.
Mr Mpuuga reiterated that there is an inside deliberate and funded campaign to character assassinate him, vowing to sacrifice himself to restore sanity and ‘common sense’ in the national and party politics.
“It became the official style of different party leaders to undermine my work, including hiring bloggers to abuse and insult my person….. I stayed committed and calm throughout these most compelling times, because the call to serve above self remained my creed,” Mr Mpuuga said.
“I wish to assure the general membership of NUP and all change seeking forces that this shall remain my resolve; and I cannot be deterred by small-group-family interests being peddled to blur the bigger picture of how the Party is being managed without transparency,” he added.
Mpuuga’s reaction follows the NUP party statement that was shared by the party president, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi yesterday, in which the top leadership of the party advised him to step down from the Parliamentary commissioner position over Shs500m ‘service award’ which was reportedly allocated to him while still serving as the Leader of Opposition.
The party noted that advice was offered to Mr Mpuuga during a Wednesday meeting which was attended by the party top leaders, including the president and all his deputies. In the same statement, NUP revealed that Mr Mpuuga had acknowledged and apologized for his wrongdoing.
However, Mpuuga has denied attending the alleged meeting, emphasizing that he only shared his views about the matter with the party comrades “in an informal conversation at the party offices.”
Mr Mpuuga urged the party to compel all the party members to refund all the funds they have received in form of gratuity since all MPs have received gratuities at various occasions.
“If such payments [the Shs500m] 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 and previous was not paid gratuity at the determination of the parliamentary Commission,” he said.
