Parliament orders new verification of ex-workers of EAC

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Parliament has ordered a fresh verification exercise of all Ugandan former employees of the defunct East African Community – EAC in order to provide a lasting settlement of their pending claims.

It follows the adoption of the report of the Committee on EAC Affairs which was tasked by the Speaker to investigate the delayed payment of retirement benefits of the employees in question that has dragged on since 1977.

The Committee noted in its report that the Ministry of East African Community Affairs did not adequately mobilize all the claimants after the Government earmarked 7.2 billion Shillings for compensation. The Committee recommended that the Ministry works with the district Local Governments and undertake a 90-day verification exercise across the country and generate a complete list of the unpaid or partially paid claimants.

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Affairs Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga told Parliament that her Ministry would be forced to return the 7.2 billion Shillings to the consolidated fund because it failed to trace up to 166 former employees.

But Kole North MP Dr Samuel Opio Acuti, who raised the matter before parliament last year, argued that the Ministry did not do thorough outreaches to trace the former workers or the surviving relatives.

Bukigai County MP David Wakikona, also a former worker of East African Airways said despite his level of exposure, he has not been aware that the Ministry was conducting an outreach program to rally them.

The Treaty for the East African Community established the Community on 6 June 1976 to accelerate economic development for the partner states that included; Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda under the East African Authority as an overriding apex body.

According to a letter dated 22 May by the Minister of Public Service, Muruli Mukasa, in response to the queries raised by Dr Acuti, the East African Authority had an institutional structure that employed a total of 5,910 Ugandan workers.

They included; the East African Railways – EAR, East African Posts and Telecommunications –EAP&T and the subsidiary East African Extelcoms, the East African Harbours – EAH and the subsidiary East African Cargo Handling, and East African Airways – EAA.

Statistics from the Ministry of Public Service reveal that the Government has paid up to 41.684 billion Shillings in gratuity, provident funds, and interests to the former employees of the Community since the year 2000.

According to the Committee, several files belonging to claimants have gone missing in the Ministry of Public Service during the investigation of the pension scam in 2012 which has complicated the payment of claimants.

The Ministry of Public Service alleged that the Criminal Investigation Department – CID picked the files to aid the Directorate of Public Prosecution as exhibits, and there is no record of who and when the files were picked.

Upon the collapse of the EAC in 1977, the Government of Uganda through a Decree of 1978, amended the Pension Act to protect the rights of Ugandans who had served under the Community.

In order to settle the terminal benefits of the former Ugandan employees of the defunct EAC, the Government constituted the “Uganda Ex-EAC Employees Terminal Benefits Committee”. In its report of 1998, commonly known as the ‘Sibo Report’, the Committee estimated claims to the Government at over USD 27 million, over 100 billion Shillings.

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