Editorial Team/Staff Writers

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Former Aruu County MP Odonga Otto has claimed that Parliament’s director of communication and public affairs, Chris Obore, who is on remand in Luzira Prison over corruption allegations, earned shs22m a month and had a shs3bn travel budget.

Mr Otto made the claim in a phone interview with OJ-UGANDA in which he was asked to substantiate a recent claim he made about Mr Obore’s salary while featuring on NextRadio’s weekend show. He said Mr Obore earned shs27m a month.

In today’s interview, however, he changed the figure.

“He has a salary of shs 22m and a travel budget of shs3bn. He is doing better than an MP. I am glad it got him where he is,” Mr Otto said.

Parliament’s acting director of communication and public affairs, Grace Gidudu, would not be drawn on the veracity of the claim.

“I cannot confirm that. I do not know what he was earning. I don’t have access to his financial records, so I would not be able to give you that information,” she told OJ-UGANDA.

Mr Obore, a former journalist who worked for the Daily Monitor, the Red Pepper and the defunct Evening Mail, was arrested on July 2 along with six other officials working at Parliament. The Inspectorate of Government alleges the seven officials embezzled over shs30bn of public funds.

During NextRadio’s show, Mr Otto said: “There is a time I tweeted that why would Chris Obore, Chris Obore here, earn [shs] 27 million a month and has a travel budget of [shs] 3 billion.”

He went on: “A UPDF [Uganda People’s Defence Forces] general earns [shs] 9 million, [shs] 12 million. I tweeted. I said, ‘What’s going on in the country?’ Someone who fought in Garamba, someone who went to [the] Central Africa[n Republic], someone who is nearly killed in Somalia, a general with escorts, he earns 9 [shs] million.”

Mr Otto said President Yoweri Museveni responded to his post but did not share details of what he said.

Asked when he made the post and how he got to know the amount Mr Obore earned, he said he thinks he made the post in 2022. On the claim about the salary, he said he was privy to information about salaries for senior staff.

Mr Otto said there are differentials in salaries for government workers that could be addressed by what he called a salary and remuneration board.

“That would determine salaries fairly. You cannot leave Parliament to determine its own salaries,” he said.

In a recent OJ-UGANDA fact-check, Mr Otto claimed that former Speaker of Parliament Anita Among earned shs500m a month. When asked to substantiate the claim, he said: “I don’t know.”

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