20/10/2023
West Ankole Diocese. CLERGY TO MATCH TO BISHOP's HOME OVER ONE YEAR UNPAID SALARIES
Disgruntled clergy in the West Ankole dioceses have threatened to match to the home of Bishop Johnson Twinomujuni accusing him of failure to pay their monthly salaries/ stipend for almost an entire year.
According to a member of the clergy who asked to remain unnamed for fear of reprisal from the Bishop, the clergy in West Ankole last received their salaries in April 2023.
"We pastors are suffering silently because we can't talk about it in public because Bp Johnson will crash us . If you complain you lose your job . We have no appointment letters, its the Bishop and his team who sit and determine how much stipend you are to get and which he can't pay you. As a pastor i can't buy necessities for my family, i can't be able to change cassocks "
"Like now we last got paid in April this year so he may give us salary for next year and he chews our money for this year starting in April"
The clergy man says every year the dioceses sends to them circulars of how much money(ebicwero) is supposed to be remitted to the dioceses account with among others the clergy's monthly stipend which is supposed to be returned to the clergy.
" For my case, they levied my parish shs 18m for entire year and this money includes my monthly stipend of shs 700,000= . I have remitted all the money but six months down the road i haven't been paid. All he does is to call us for meetings and intimidating us . The man in public plays Angel but in real sense he is a leopard hiding in goats skin. At my parish the church leadership thinks am being paid but am not, i can't tell them because if i tell them they will stop remitting that money to the dioceses and again thats another trouble from the bishop."
However , for West Ankole, the Bishop has not been remitting their monthly stipends for the last 6 months and uses it for personal business.
"We are starving, the clergy are poor under Johnson, we have reached a point of being reported to police or Archideacons by shop owners in our areas because of failing to pay debts at shops"
" The bishop doesn't care, he is a one man's show, his is to collect moneys and eat with his family. During baptism ceremonies each parish is supposed to give him shs 1m , sacks of ground nuts, millet etc, in one Archideaconary, the man can collect over 15m. Remember he now wants it deposited on his account before he shows up to lay his hands on the confirmation candidates. Initially whenever a Bishop was visiting for confirmation, we would money in a parcel for the diocesan secretary , bishop's driver, bishop's chaplain and bishop's wife but under Johnson he has stopped everything. All the money now belongs to him alone.
"Remember the bishop's entire diocesan salary for 15 years is deposited on his account the first day of his consecretion. From their everything is paid for by the dioceses including underwear as he eats our stipends without concern and coerces us into submission."
According to this man of God, in order to know how much you earn, you have to inquire from the diocesan accounts because nothing is official or in writing about their employment and terms of payment.
" They only give us their IDs and posting letters. You can imagine when we retire , we are only given shs 20,000= monthly as our pension after serving all these years. West Ankole dioceses is no longer attractive to serve as a pastor unlike other dioceseses like North Ankole etc.
"The bishop has now brought in crooks from his home area in Kashari as church auditors who come to audit us but they are thugs, if you're not intelligent those people can land you into trouble by staging losses against you. One of us fell into their crooked hands and was forced to pay shs 10m he didn't know about. You know many of some of us are uneducated and are falling into their victims".
The clergy man says the president should interest himself in their matters .
" Most Reverands die very early soon after retirement because of depression and retiring poor , the president should also look into our issues as West Ankole, he may think that all is well with us but we can't breathe".
