The controversial Constitutional Amendment Bill (No2) 2017 better known as Age Limit Bill is set to become the most expensive Bill in Uganda’s history.
Businessfocus.co.ug understands that the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee plans to spend Shs715.3m of tax payers’ money on processing the Bill that seeks to lift the Presidential age cap currently at 75.
If passed into law, the contentious Bill introduced by Igara West MP, Raphael Magyezi, will give President Yoweri Museveni an opportunity to stand again in 2021 at the age of 77.
According to the draft budget documents prepared by the Committee, Shs227.24m will be spent on internal field trips to gather people’s views on the Bill.
The Committee will spend Shs400.08m on international trips, with the Committee set to travel to three countries.
The Committee will to travel to seven districts in five regions across the country, documents seen by Business Focus indicate.
Documents indicate that the Committee plans to spend Shs88.3m on report writing. This expected to take place in a workshop or retreat.
How Money Will Be spent
On internal trips, the Committee will embark on 10 regional trips and each MP on the Committee will be given Shs20m. The Committee has 23 MPs. Five MPs will be sent to each region.
The Committee draft report further reveals that three staff will accompany the Committee and each will be paid per Diem of Shs290, 000. This will total to Shs8.7m for the 10 trips.
Three Police officers will also accompany the Committee and each will get Shs175, 000 facilitation per day. This will total to Shs5.25m for the 10 days the Committee will spend in the field.
Shs10M has been planned for fuel expenses for each regional trip while each driver will get Shs150, 000, bringing the total expenditure to Shs1.5M.
In total, the Committee plans to spend Shs227.25m on internal trips to the West, Central, North, West Nile and East.
International Trips
For international trips, air tickets for the MPs will cost Shs36M, while those of their staff will cost Shs11.2m, reveals the Committee draft report.
Shs1.92m has been budgeted as visa fees. The international bench-marking trips will also cost Shs64.8m as per Diem for MPs and Shs19.440m for their staff.
The Committee says Shs133.36m will be spent for each bench-marking session. This means a total of Shs400.08m will be spent for the three trips.
For report compilation, the Committee plans to hire a venue at Shs3M. It also plans to spend Shs79.8m on for accommodation for the whole team.
Transport refund and contingency fees have been budgeted at Shs3.5m and Shs2m respectively. 00,000M. In total, Shs88.3m will be spent on report compilation.
It should be noted that other MPs who are not on the Committee are set to receive Shs20m each for consultations in their constituencies.
