By Ssebuliba Samuel.
The ministry of defense says it plans to clear all pending arrears for retired officers in a space of two year from now.
While interacting with members of parliament’s Public Accounts Committee yesterday, the ministry officials revealed that they are stuck with arrears amounting to Shs 718 billion that remained unpaid by close of the last financial year.
According to the undersecretary Ministry of Defense Edith Buturo, over 8,000 retired soldiers are demanding their gratuity, but money has remained a big challenge.
She has however said that owing to the gravity of the matter, they have set up a team of nine auditors to scrutinize army officer’s gratuity and pension to ease the process of paying them as well as eliminate ghost claimants.