We received disparaging news that MPs had failed to account for more than Shs 3.2billion handed out to them last year as the government’s contribution to their constituency development fund.
This is a fund that has been perennially plagued by poor accountability since it’s inception in 2005; a fund where a measly Shs 10million is banked into the personal accounts of our lawmakers every year. This latest episode precipitates fresh debate on the effectiveness of the fund.
In the past, MPs have rightly argued that the money is not enough to serve its original purpose which is to help finance small scale development projects in their constituencies. Now, if Shs 10million is not enough, there are two ways to go about this-either suspend the fund and leave development work for the government or increase it to substantial amounts.
But because government appears unable to increase the amount, scrapping the fund would be the most logical option.
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The Ministry of Finance was in the hot seat last week, as it emerged that the government had paid out close to Shs 300million to a U.S firm owned by Rosa Whitaker to write President Museveni’s speeches, among other assignments.
Budadiri MP Nandala Mafabi brought a cheeky spin to the curious payments after he described invoices presented by the finance chiefs accounting for the deal as documents similar to love letters.
“We cannot accept this nonsense,” Mr Mafabi said, adding, “They are not even signed yet public monies were paid.” While the revelation was both startling as it was hilarious, it only spoke volumes about the style of management of public funds by the Museveni administration.
Before seeking external help on speech drafting, had all the internal options been weighed? Lets not forget who received this money; yes, it is the same Rosa Whitaker of the Agoa fame. Remember what happened to Apparel Tri-Star and billions of our hard earned money? Same system, same characters, same script!
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If there is any public official who needs all our praise and support, it is John Muwanga the astute Auditor General. This guy has done an excellent job auditing government accounts and has unearthed scandal after scandal.
Parliament heard last week that a whooping Shs 159billion went squandered from the accounts of local governments across the country for the financial year 2007/2008 either through misuse, waste in expenditure or outright theft.
It is just foolhardy that such scandalous stats do not seem to provoke the amount of outrage that would be the impetus for stern action against corruption and waste of public money. The recommendations of the AG’s report should be upheld by government and Parliament must exert pressure on the state to take heed.
The government has laboured to create the impression that it is fixing this mess, but what we have been fed on is nothing but lip service. The conviction of Mr Teddy Ssezi Cheeye will now be the new cliché song about the NRM regime’s supposed zero tolerance of corruption campaign, but make no mistakes, these same vices will continue.
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Lawmakers on the Budget Committee handed out a stern warning to State House over its penchant for spending beyond its means, although I doubt such admonition will be heeded. Discussing supplementary budget reports for the different government sectors, MPs singled out State House for over shooting its budget.
Recently, State House asked for an additional Shs 21.3billion after revealing that it had spent within the first three months, all the Shs 66b allocated to it for this current financial year. And guess what, after blowing that money, the current supplementary seeks to cover travel expenses, fuel, and medical treatment for traditional and religious leaders, progressive farmers and donations to senior citizens.
For Christ sake who the heck are these people? Does the ambiguity of these allocations not leave a sour taste? Well, it certainly does and also brings it sharp focus the cost of running the presidency and state house. These are matters for which Parliament needs to express deep reservation with stern action.
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Monday, April 20, 2009
Tales of Indignity engulf the House
It happens to be a very good time to be a politics columnist.
Over the past few weeks, a lot of mayhem has been going on in the political realm in Uganda, shared evenly between the Presidency and Parliament; confusion that had gotten me somewhat despondent.
But I have shrugged off my gloom to open a whole new chapter of insight into the intricate, weird and questionable operations of our political elite. In this homecoming edition of “The Parliamentary Insider", we are greeted by tales of indignity, whose origin, fortunately, can be trailed through some dubious Executive decisions.
“God’s Warrior” Faith Mwondha, the Inspector General of Government on rampage, is one such beneficiary of curious executive action.
Last week, President Museveni chose to turn tables on Parliament and formalised her reappointment as the IGG.
That decision will go along way in betraying his weakness for taking decisions for political expedience rather than what is just.
Apparently, the President’s PPS Ms Amelia Kyambadde, who happens to be a close friend and ally of the Lady Justice, delivered her instrument of reappointment on Tuesday last week. Problem is, the letter of her reappointment is the same contentious document of February 12, which the Head of Public Service Mr John Mitala advised cannot be sanctioned without Parliament formally vetting the IGG for reappointment.
President Museveni subsequently forwarded both Justice Mwondha’s names and her deputy Raphael Baku to Parliament for approval after legal counsel from his Attorney General Prof. Khiddu Makubuya. Mr Baku went, Mwondha didn’t. Museveni met NRM MPs who sit on the Appointments Committee, tried to cajole them into changing their opinion of the woman who has turned out to be such a P.R disaster but hit a hard rock.
But alas, the decision was his, and a wrong one, I reckon. While I have nothing but contempt for Mwondha’s work ethic, style and total disregard for institutions, I must say I got no personal beef against the woman. She has had her days in the sun and basked in some glory courtesy of her positive efforts in the fight against corruption. But she has stretched her influence and importance, creating a larger than life image of herself.
It is now no secret that Mwondha is bigger than the office of the IGG, and has shown just how expendable she is not. Beyond just setting yet another terrible example, what the President has done is simply show Parliament the middle finger-a phrase aptly coined by my good friend Jo- and literary pissed on them. By scorning Parliament, he has shown MPs that they are simply nothing.
The question still begs, why the heck did Parliament waste taxpayers money, go through the whole process of vetting the IGG, make its recommendations, only for that effort to be rendered useless?
But more importantly, what does Parliament have to do to survive this overbearing influence of the Executive? For standing firm on the IGG, however, we must commend our lawmakers although I still think the House is in dire need of patriots who will have the courage to stand up and throw back the middle finger at the government and say, enough is enough!
Over the past few weeks, a lot of mayhem has been going on in the political realm in Uganda, shared evenly between the Presidency and Parliament; confusion that had gotten me somewhat despondent.
But I have shrugged off my gloom to open a whole new chapter of insight into the intricate, weird and questionable operations of our political elite. In this homecoming edition of “The Parliamentary Insider", we are greeted by tales of indignity, whose origin, fortunately, can be trailed through some dubious Executive decisions.
“God’s Warrior” Faith Mwondha, the Inspector General of Government on rampage, is one such beneficiary of curious executive action.
Last week, President Museveni chose to turn tables on Parliament and formalised her reappointment as the IGG.
That decision will go along way in betraying his weakness for taking decisions for political expedience rather than what is just.
Apparently, the President’s PPS Ms Amelia Kyambadde, who happens to be a close friend and ally of the Lady Justice, delivered her instrument of reappointment on Tuesday last week. Problem is, the letter of her reappointment is the same contentious document of February 12, which the Head of Public Service Mr John Mitala advised cannot be sanctioned without Parliament formally vetting the IGG for reappointment.
President Museveni subsequently forwarded both Justice Mwondha’s names and her deputy Raphael Baku to Parliament for approval after legal counsel from his Attorney General Prof. Khiddu Makubuya. Mr Baku went, Mwondha didn’t. Museveni met NRM MPs who sit on the Appointments Committee, tried to cajole them into changing their opinion of the woman who has turned out to be such a P.R disaster but hit a hard rock.
But alas, the decision was his, and a wrong one, I reckon. While I have nothing but contempt for Mwondha’s work ethic, style and total disregard for institutions, I must say I got no personal beef against the woman. She has had her days in the sun and basked in some glory courtesy of her positive efforts in the fight against corruption. But she has stretched her influence and importance, creating a larger than life image of herself.
It is now no secret that Mwondha is bigger than the office of the IGG, and has shown just how expendable she is not. Beyond just setting yet another terrible example, what the President has done is simply show Parliament the middle finger-a phrase aptly coined by my good friend Jo- and literary pissed on them. By scorning Parliament, he has shown MPs that they are simply nothing.
The question still begs, why the heck did Parliament waste taxpayers money, go through the whole process of vetting the IGG, make its recommendations, only for that effort to be rendered useless?
But more importantly, what does Parliament have to do to survive this overbearing influence of the Executive? For standing firm on the IGG, however, we must commend our lawmakers although I still think the House is in dire need of patriots who will have the courage to stand up and throw back the middle finger at the government and say, enough is enough!
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