Today Parliament opens debate on a motion intended to force government to comply with a Constitutional provision that makes it mandatory to pay pensioners. 

Government owes more than 69,000 former public officers Shs 276.7 billion in pension arrears. 

The sponsor of this unprecedented motion is Mwenge South MP Dora Byamukama. She is relying on Article 254 of the Constitution that compels government to pay retired public officers a tax-free pension, subject to positive review, in a "prompt" and "regular" manner. 

Byamukama and her backers intend to show that government is in breach of Article 254. 

The front bench yesterday lost a preliminary foray in this absorbing contest when Defence minister Amama Mbabazi suggested that the motion was "incompetent" to the extent that it assaults Article 93 of the Constitution. 
Article 93 bars anyone from moving a motion or bill that will, among others, "impose a charge" on the Consolidated Fund. 

This fund can loosely be referred to as the central resource envelope of the state. 

But Mbabazi's procedural objection soon ran afoul of an argument, which was crystallised by Oyam North MP Ben Wacha, as to whether "pension arrears" constitute a "new charge" on the Consolidated Fund. 

Buikwe North representative, Wagonda Muguli had echoed Wacha's earlier reasoning that this money has already been appropriated by the House and hence cannot be a new expense. 

"That is the gist of the matter," he said, and pointedly asked Attorney General Francis Ayume to pronounce himself on that point. 

Muguli drew on his government accounting background to inform the House that pension arrears fall under the ambit of what are known as "Statutory Debts" which include monies owed to international financial institutions. 

"Government is taking advantage of vulnerable pensioners and yet they should [ordinarily] be treated as first priority," he said. 

Ayume responded by saying "I do not think I can read the question of a new charge in the motion. Government could have paid the pension but it did not". 
He, however, qualified his opinion by wondering aloud how a Parliamentary resolution compelling government to comply with Article 254 can be implemented. 

A clear standoff was evidently on the cards. Mbabazi came up for air denying that government is happily and deliberately denying pensioners their rights. 
The junior minister for Finance, Isaac Musumba picked the baton, reminding Parliament of the rationale that informed the inclusion of Article 93 into the 1995 Constitution. 

"It was to avoid a situation where Parliament could impose charges on the Consolidated Fund beyond its means," he said, resurrecting MPs earlier submissions that no new charge is envisaged here. 

Speaker Edward Ssekandi preferred not to rule either way and postponed the argument to today.