The new allowances will cost taxpayers an additional Ush63.46 billion ($16,967) in the 2019/20 budget.
The MPs also raised their inland and overseas travel allowances, and are demanding an additional Ush20.4 billion ($5.5 million) for committee oversight and bench-marking trips.
Uganda Members of Parliament have increased their allowances by 39 per cent and that of parliamentary staff by 15 per cent, citing rising costs of living.
Headline inflation in the country, which measures fluctuation in prices of fixed basket of goods such as food and energy, stood at three per cent last month, according to Bank of Uganda.
MP Peter Ogwang (Usuk, NRM), who doubles as a parliamentary commissioner, said last night that their Ush6 million ($1,605) monthly, alongside untaxed allowances, are depleted through constituents’ requests, leaving them on the edge.
“I want to call upon the public that whenever Parliament makes a case of additional money, they should listen to us, they should not castigate us that we are paid well,” he said.
Each of the 459 legislators earns anywhere between Ush15 million to Ush30 million ($4,011-$8,021) every month, depending on how far their constituency is from Parliament Building in Kampala, the seat of their legislative business.
Our investigations show that the new allowances will cost taxpayers an additional Ush63.46 billion ($16,967) in the 2019/20 budget, increasing the House budget from the current Ush497.8 billion ($133 million) to Ush561.3 billion ($150 million).
OTHER DEMANDS
The MPs also raised their inland and overseas travel allowances, and are demanding an additional Ush20.4 billion ($5.5 million) for committee oversight and bench-marking trips.
Addressing newly-elected MPs at State House in 2016, President Museveni warned them against scrambling for trips.
The roles of MPs under the Constitution include making laws, appropriating public resources, providing oversight on the spending and representing views of their constituents.
They do so by attending and contributing to debates, both in sittings of committees of Parliament and the plenary as well as consulting voters on matters of national importance.
News of the increase in allowances comes at a time when an internal report shows the lawmakers are posting less-than-satisfactory performance, the quality of debate is deteriorating and there’s an inordinate delay in handling critical reports of key government institutions as prescribed by law.
Mr Jim Mugunga, the Finance ministry spokesperson, on Thursday evening said they were not aware of the pay raise and expect that Parliament, as a key institution in allocating national resources, would be the last to “distort” the budget.
“The Ministry of Finance presented the available resource envelope for the coming financial year to Parliament for consideration,” he said, “[And] we do not hide other revenues for future use outside the natural budgetary process”.
The Parliamentary Commission, which the Speaker of Parliament chairs, is responsible for determining the remuneration and welfare of lawmakers.
Article 85 of the Constitution states that MPs are entitled to determine their emoluments, a privilege no other public officials enjoy.
The upward variation in their untaxed allowances follows clamour for pay raise by different groups of government employees in a country without a Salary Review Commission, as demanded by various sections of the public, to harmonise the presently staggering remuneration in public service.
The House on Wednesday did not debate the latest raise in allowances when the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee presented the changes.
