The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Joel Ssenyonyi, has dismissed as baseless reports that he received a service award worth Shs650 million.
Recent social media posts claimed that Ssenyonyi had been given the controversial payout, which caused political trouble to his predecessor Mathias Mpuuga .
However, speaking to the media at Parliament on Tuesday, he refuted the allegations, saying they were orchestrated to cover up a recent service award totaling to Shs1.6billion given to members of the Parliamentary Commission.
Instead he stated that the latest service award had been dished out to commissioners including Prossy Akampulira Mbabazi (Rubanda Woman MP), Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba (Nyendo-Mukungwe), Solomon Silwany (Bukooli Central) and Esther Afoyochan (Zombo Woman MP). He said the money was sent through the Parliamentary Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO) so that it could not be easily traced.
The LoP explained that the money “was apparently intended to see them through the campaigns. And to avoid a paper trail, this money was received through the Parliamentary SACCO.”
Ssenyonyi further revealed that the recipients deployed agents to propagate false claims about him receiving the award.
“These people through their agents have been recently, and specifically last week, been spreading propaganda that I also received a service award. Some of you probably saw those things. This is completely false and it is meant to be a cover up for this second service award that the commissioners gave themselves,” he added.
Service awards in Parliament have continued to attract controversy.
In 2022, then the LoP Mpuuga faced public criticism when he received a Shs500 million service award, a move widely questioned for its timing and lack of transparency.