Parliament has awarded three companies contracts to manage funeral services of MPs, their spouses and staff.
The three successful companies are Uganda Funeral Directors, A-Plus Funeral Management Ltd and Kampala Funeral Directors.
According to bid notices pinned on the Parliament notice boards, the Parliamentary Commission will spend up to Shs59.343m on burial of MPs and their spouses . The price quotations will be used in the next five years.
A-Plus Funeral Management Ltd quoted a price of Shs50,171,900 exclusive of the Shs9.171,900 VAT of 18% to bury an MP. On how the money would be spent, Shs7.7Million would go towards placement of adverts in print and UBC TV and Shs300,000 will be spent on transport for a distance that is within 20Km from Kampala and an additional Shs1,800 per extra kilometer.
For video coverage and still photography, A-Plus intends to charge Shs1,550,000, while handling the body/embalming would cost Shs250,000 and Shs750,000 for postmortem report but this would be optional.
The company quoted a price of Shs1.2M for two public address systems and Shs6.2mfor religious church service and of this, only Shs200,000 will be paid to the choir while the Shs6m will go towards printing order of service but no money will be paid the religious leaders.
Further, Shs7m will go towards purchase of an American casket whose price ranges between Shs6-12M and an additional Shs2.330M would go towards handling the casket.
To feed mourners, A-Plus would charge Shs14.25m, while hiring of tents would cost Shs1.7million. The Company quoted Shs500,000 to hire two generators.
Grave construction is one of the most costly items accounting for Shs10,275,000. Shs300,000 will go towards for grave digging and Shs7.975million on grave finishing
For the package of Muslim MPs, A-Plus Funeral Services quoted a price of sShs37,905,000 and Shs6.822,000 as VAT charges.
The staff of parliament would also benefit from the funeral services offered by Parliament, with the Christians allocated Shs5,832,900 while Muslims Shs4.608,900.
However, if any of those groups listed above passes away due to Covid, Parliament will be charged an extra Shs300,000 to cover for Personal Protective gears and another Shs250,000 for mobile toilets.
Kampala Funeral Directors quoted the lowest price of Shs27,820,000 for Christians and Shs14,520,000 for Muslim MPs.
Uganda Funeral Services quoted a price of Shs56,450,000 for Christian MPs and their spouses and Shs45,150,000 for Muslim MPs or their spouses.
