After weeks of silence on the extra money he got from Parliament for visiting ailing Kawempe North MP Muhammad Ssegirinya in a hospital in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) Joel Ssenyonyi says he has returned the extra money he got as per diem for checking on his sick comrade.
Parliament paid Ssenyonyi $850 per days for the five days he was said to be in Nairobi to check on Ssegirinya. In total, a little over Shs16m was paid to his account in Housing Finance Bank, according documents shared during the online Uganda Parliament Exhibition.
Now, Ssenyonyi has explained that he did not expect to receive money for five days.
“I gave indication that I will be there for one night and that I’ll return to take care of other responsibilities that I have. So, I did go, came back and gave a report about the progress of our member,” he said at a news conference in Kampala on March 21, 2024.
“A couple of days later I saw a reflection of money on my account. They had processed money for five days as opposed to one day for which I was in Nairobi.”
Ssenyonyi, who is also the main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) spokesperson and Nakawa West MP, has explained that he expected Parliament to deduct the money for the four extra off his March 2023 salary.
He explained that Parliament deducts any the costs for extra days from one’s emoluments for the following month. That happens in cases, like his, when extra money from the National Treasury has been sent to one’s account.
He went on to note that instead of Parliament deducting the money for the extra four days from his March 2024 salary, the Accountability office told him it would hew it off his April emoluments.
“I said ‘no, I am not going to wait for that. So I withdrew money from my account for the four days and I went and deposited that money with the accountability office and I got a receipt for it. I don’t want this matter to take longer than it should… I don’t want people to misuse it.”
It should be remembered that Ssenyonyi’s predecessor LoP Mathias Mpuuga has refused to resign his commissioner job and to refund the Shs500m he and other members of the parliamentary commission awarded themselves as a service award. NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine has insisted Mpuuga must go. (See Details Here and There).
APOLOGIZE & RESIGN: Joel Ssenyonyi Told After He Returned ‘Excess Money’ for Ssegirinya Visit
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