Chogm: You must account for our money

As you read this, I'll probably be rubbing shoulders with inquisitors at the Criminal Investigation's Department. It turns out that a story I wrote in August about a salary scandal implicating the IGG has rubbed this stone-faced, stone-cold and stone hearted woman the wrong way. But after four years exposing government excesses, it has been a call a little too late. But alas, it has come.
Well, expect every single detail of the quizzing. ..........
Chogm is around the corner; billions have been spent but we shall demand accountability.
Enjoy today's episode of The Insider's exploits. .......................



THE House is still closed and it is has everything to do with my current state of mind. But the rest of the country is basking in the Chogm frenzy. Why, can you blame them? The prospect of playing host is one many relish and one whose benefits the ideal bloke in down town Kampala is waiting reverently in earnest to enjoy. Will he?

The city has been much of a construction site the last couple of months, and by the look of things it will until the eve of the summit; perhaps even after the summit has ended. All this across-the-board preparation for the Kampala Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, however, has not spared Parliament either; although it must be said, it has turned out a blessing in disguise. I

t is no secret the Parliamentary Building has been bleeding for attention the last couple of years; bullet hole ridden, brownish coatings on the wall and leaking roofs. And because the structure of the National Parliament is perhaps the most prominent symbol of government, it was all the necessary that this five-decade-old building got a quick facelift.

But we can all attest to the weeks of inconvenience we have been subjected to as we access the precincts of Parliament.
The main entrance to the House remains closed, with visitors and everybody else including Parliamentary Commission staff and MPs using the entrance the south side of the building. For close to a month, the Speaker’s parking lot has been the front desk of Parliament with a makeshift reception curved out of three chairs and wide rectangular table.

And what seemed like an emergency exit, or perhaps the Speaker’s back door exit, turned out the “main” entrance into the House. Now take a stroll down Parliamentary Avenue and a pretty sight will greet you. All of a sudden, the House has been given a fresh berth of life. Although Roko Construction has pulled off a mean fete, the other Chogm contractors are facing serious credibility issues.

If you live in Kampala, you can easily tell that the country’s readiness for Chogm is in serious doubt. Will the opening up of manholes and digging of pavements continue until the last minute? Some of the works, in all honesty are ridiculous. For instance take a close look at the new pavements in along Acacia Avenue, right up to inlet to Kira Road. A thin layer of cement is what holds the single concrete blocks together.

A friend recently quipped that one single hailstorm would come uproot and wash away these “laser thin” held blocks into the golf course. It has been a quick fix job; patch up and move. But we have sunk billions of shillings into the Chogm project. Aren’t we entitled to value for money? We all knew about Chogm four years ago didn’t we; why this frenzy two weeks to the summit? By the end of 2006, Parliament had approved [and government had spent] amounts in excess of Shs 110billion in preparations to host 53 heads of state and government.

This year alone, another Shs 153billion has been approved and we are made to believe, will be spent entirely on the summit. Have you forgotten what strain the government went through to raise this money? Government departments and ministries are cash strapped courtesy of an across-the-board slash of their budgets and have been left with money to cater for salaries, fuel and occasional breakfasts at the office.

But when the dust finally settles and we look back at our performance on the global stage, we shall ask, how did you spend our money? Were all the laid down procedures of public procurement followed? It will be necessary for Parliament to institute a special audit for the entire Chogm accounts. It has also been said people are making a killing out of the project in dubious closed door deals and inflated budgets. This audit will provide necessary answers.

But outside Chogm, MPs converge today at the Speke Resort Munyonyo for a two day residential conference on the political path our country is taking and one that is expected to generate a roadmap to initiate electoral reforms. Speaker Edward Ssekandi spoke last week with a lot of enthusiasm about the conference saying it is the perfect opportunity for all MPs, despite the different political shades to dialogue with civil society actors and strengthen the country’s budding multiparty democracy ahead of the 2011 general elections.

But we all know what comes of such gatherings; usually the findings and agreements remain in the conference hall. The opposition, however, is not taking anything to chance. “If we could get reform, sleeping in Munyonyo before the heads of government come to sleep there,” said Prof. Ogenga Latigo the Leader of the Opposition, “that would be the greatest thing; because the other way of getting reform is to go to the streets and get beaten and suffer tear gas. People think we go there because we enjoy, no we don’t.”

I won’t attend the opening session, much as I would have loved to because I have been invited by the Criminal Investigations Directorate “to assist in providing valuable information” over a story I published in August about the IGG’s salary scandal. Well it’s just a beautiful way of saying I am being summoned for interrogation. Press freedom is under attack, but we shall weather the storm.
Until then...