MP MbabaziI: Here's how I splashed sh400m service award bonanza

Prossy Akampurira Begumisa Mbabazi, one of the four embattled commissioners of parliament and Rubanda District Woman Member of Parliament, has finally admitted receiving the controversial ‘service award’ but says she gave it out to women’s groups in her constituency.

Mbabazi and three backbench commissioners, Mathias Mpuuga, Esther Afoyochan, and Solomon Silwany, are facing intense scrutiny from taxpayers disillusioned by a fireball of corruption in the country’s legislature.
While speaking during the belated women days on Friday at Kacerere playground in Bufundi Sub County Rubanda District, Mbabazi admitted that she received the Shs 400 million, but she gave it to her constituents through village groups where each village would get Shs 300.000.

“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 knew how important they were,” said Mbabazi.

She said the noise around the controversial service award as well as the ongoing censure process are all political gimmicks by her political opponents, urging Lwemiyaga County MP Theodore Ssekikubo and others leading the censure motion against her to “stop fighting and unite parliament, saying that she 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.

“It’s 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 you accountability for that money. We had a meeting, and the commission is not only made up of only four commissioners; it’s a parliamentary commission.”
“I have never stolen money; this is money that came from the Ministry of Finance into my account,” she said.

The Rubanda Woman MP is publicly coming out to declare that she got the money. This is nearly four months after an expose that the commissioners received a total of Shs 1.7 billion as a person-to-holder allowance. After this scandal was exposed, a section of voters have been up in arms over the controversial award as they also held demonstrations against their female MP.

Henry Musasizi, the State Minister for Finance, while speaking as the guest of honor, urged leaders, mostly members of parliament, to always invest in mobilizing the people they lead to engage in government programs, saying that failing to do so has led the voters to always put much pressure on them, leading them to engage in stealing from the taxpayer.

“Why do you think these MPs steal money? It’s because they carried on their head issues of constituency, but if they championed different government programs, it would be better,” added Musasizi.

Musasizi, who is also the Rubanda East MP, says that it’s high time the MPs champion government programs like Emyooga, UWEP, and parish development program.