It was all smiles for 89 former parish chiefs on Thursday morning after Gulu High Court attached bank accounts of Gulu District Local Government and ordered for immediate payments of outstanding debts to the former civil servants.
Ms Shamim Amollo of Amollo & Co. Advocate argued before Henry Twinomuhezi, the Assistant Registrar for Gulu High Court that since 2003, the applicants have been coming to court to see that they get what is due to them and in the process some have died before getting the pay.
But Henry Oluka, a Senior Principal Officer from the Attorney General’s office who was representing Gulu District Local Government said that blocking the bank accounts of the district has caused a lot of suffering since the tax payers have been denied services.
But Twinomuhezi, the Assistant Registrar for Gulu High Court ordered Gulu District Local Government to clear its former civil servants arguing that there is no reason given to court on why the district has failed to pay the former Parish Chiefs.
During a ruling on Thursday, Twinomuhezi attached bank accounts’ of Gulu District Local Government and ordered that money be transferred into one account so that the court starts to effect payments to the former parish chiefs.
The affected bank accounts are in Stanbic Bank, DfCU Bank and Crane bank where the District Local Government has around 450M shillings.
He said the court will serve orders to the three bank branches so that the payments are made as soon as possible to the respective beneficiaries.
The ruling was also made in the presence Ms Dorothy Ajwang, the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for Gulu District who rushed out of the court chambers before talking to the media.
The Parish Chiefs who were laid off in 2002 during a restructuring program due to lack of academic qualifications are demanding for Shs4.1 billion in unpaid pension, gratuities and damages and a total of Shs290.212 million in legal costs.
In 2012, Justice Remmy Kasule awarded them Shs2 billion on grounds that proper procedures were not followed while the affected civil servants were being laid off.
Mr Omach Okwera, the Chairperson of the former Parish Chiefs after the ruling said, “I am happy that we will soon be able to get our money after more than 12 years of pursuing this case.”
Okwera however said some of the former parish chiefs have since died.
He said they have lost 22 out of the 89 members in the last decade as the case dragged on in court.
