UPDF Seeks $58m for Pensions
THE EASTAFRICAN
AS PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni retires from the army, the institution he has served for the better part of his life, the Uganda government is looking for Ush113 billion ($58 million) to pay pensions of soldiers who have left the service over the years.
However, soldiers who served in President Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA) during its guerrilla days are unhappy that they will not get any compensation for the time they spent in the bush, although soldiers in earlier armies are set to get their pensions.
"They will pay soldiers from all former armies. It is only the NRA [guerrilla] fighters who will not be paid because they are not recognised by law," said Army Spokesman Shaban Bantariza last week, adding, "You do not recognise us as people who liberated you."
The NRA begun a guerrilla war in February 1981, two months after Museveni lost the December 1980 presidential election to Milton Obote.
The group took power in January 1986 and was renamed the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) by the 1995 constitution.
Up to $21 million is also being sought to pay the severance benefits of several thousands of UPDF members that are due to leave the force for a number of reasons including poor health, incompetence and advanced age. Museveni announced last week in the western Uganda town of Kabale that he applied for retirement and his request had been granted.
Museveni, 59, has been involved in military action, having first participated in the Mozambique liberation struggles in the early 1970s and later in the Uganda liberation war of 1979. Between 1981-86 he led a rebellion in central Uganda that toppled Obote's government and brought him to power.
Museveni, until his retirement, has been the commander of the armed forces and once in a while would go to the front line in northern Uganda to direct the battle against the rebel Lord's Resistance Army of Joseph Kony.
Army officials said last week that due to the shortage of funds they had failed to demobilise several thousands of eligible soldiers.
Last year, just over 1,000 men were retired but no officer was released from the force, Bantariza said.
Citing lack of money, the army gave the retiring soldiers three months' salaries and sent them home as it processed their gratuity.
For some time now, Uganda has discouraged officers from applying to leave the force because it has no money to pay their severance benefits. It has, however, allowed a small number of men to leave because their benefits are smaller.
The soldiers' benefits are calculated according to seniority and number of years served. Each soldier gets gratuity equivalent to a month's salary for every full year they serve with the force. However, one cannot get pension unless they have served with the army for at least 12 years.
At the end of last year, local media reports said President Museveni had applied to leave the UPDF, apparently to enable him lead the recently registered National Resistance Movement Organisation (NRMO), a political party of sorts the ruling Movement is transforming itself into as the country moves towards multiparty democracy.
Army officials said although they do not expect the Ministry of Public Service to release pension funds for soldiers in the near future, they would allow the president to retire from the force. Museveni is a Lieutenant General, a rank he shares with five others.
Information from the Ministry of Public Service indicates that the government owes pensioners a total of Ush265 billion ($136 million), of which Ush17 billion ($8.72 million) is for Local Government employees and Ush41 billion ($21 million) for former workers of the East African Community. Some Ush83 billion ($42.6 million) is classified as pension revalidated arrears and Ush11 billion ($5.64 million) as unpaid pension and death gratuities.
"The more the government delays to pay the bigger the liability," said Ms D. Katuramu, the Director of Administrative Reform in the Ministry. "In case of rightsizing there will be need to pay pension to staff who will be affected."
The army's Policy and Administration Committees that sits in various divisions have sent to the army headquarters lists of several soldiers whose retirement they have approved. Among those being discharged are "malingerers," the terminally ill, the aged, non-performers and some who have asked for voluntary retirement.
The army has also reportedly received a number of applications from officers willing to retire but the applications have not been considered because there is no money to pay their benefits.
Bantariza said the number of soldiers to be demobilised had not been determined and would depend on the outcome of the Defence Review Process, which the country launched about two years ago with the assistance of the UK's Department for International Development.
"Slimming the force will be done in accordance with the recommendations of the review, which will create new capabilities for the UPDF," he said. "The force will be a specific figure, some departments will be merged."
The Defence Review examines personnel issues including recruitment, training, conditions of service and welfare. "Professionalism can only be achieved through having well motivated and highly trained people. This requires the right personnel policies that create the right ethos and pride in the profession," says a report on the review.
After the Review has decided what roles the UPDF should play, it will determine the number of soldiers required and the nature of training they need as well as equipment needed.
Robert Rusoke, the director general of the Defence Review Unit, says by the end of April, they will have finalised a white paper outlining how the UPDF should be transformed into a more efficient, modern and professional force.
The defence policy, which outlines the security problems Uganda faces, has already been tabled before cabinet by Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi.
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