The Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah (pictured) has directed all Committees of Parliament to put an end to the lobby schemes they have been engaged in the guise of holding inquiry meetings with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) outside the premises of Parliament in a move intended to curb the huge appetite for bribes among the lawmakers.
Oulanyah gave the order during Tuesday plenary meeting where he hinged his decision following reports that Committees were hiding behind those meetings to extort entities of their meagre funding by demanding for transport refund, despite Parliament incurring transportation costs of the Committee members.
“No MDA shall finance the activities of committees of parliament because doing so will end up undermining the independence and authority of this institution. This independence that we sing about, glorify and shout about, this is the easiest way to erode it if you have people secretly financing it,” said Oulanyah.
As has been the practice, many Committees have been camping at different agencies in the guise of carrying out their oversight functions and in some incidences, the MPs even make calls to their colleagues to sign and pick facilitation in case they aren’t in position to make it to the site.
The least the MDAs pay in facilitation is Shs500,000, but the Committee Chairpersons and their Deputies are paid Shs1m and currently, Committees have an average of 35 MPs each.
However, Oualnyah’s ruling didn’t clarify on cases where some top Government officials have chosen to host the Committees in their preferred venues, instead of holding meetings in the humble Parliament Committee rooms.
This trend was famous with former Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa who had made it a habit to host the Committee at Serena Hotel instead of Parliament and at the end, the MPs in attendance were paid in dollars.
Recently, the Opposition MPs protested a request by First Lady Janet Museveni who also doubles as Minister of Education to hold a meeting outside Parliament premises.
However, recently, the Committee on East African Affairs (EAC) scheduled a meeting with former Speaker Kadaga who is currently Deputy Prime Minister (East African Affairs) at her office at Kingdom Hall, after failing to show up at Parliament.
Following Oulanyah’s ruling, Flavia Kabenda Flavia (Woman MP Kyegegwa District) and Cecilia Ogwal (Woman MP Dokolo District) asked the Speaker to clarify on the process and criteria Committees have to follow when circumstances require Committees to hold meetings at venues of the MDAs.
They cited a meeting that had been scheduled by Ministry of Finance with Ogwal remarking, “I want to bring to the attention of the House if it can be allowed or not to be allowed is that they can arrange a meeting in conference Hall or Hotel. How do we handle? I would prefer government agencies to use Parliamentary premises. I find it difficult for us to hold meetings within the boardrooms of either URA or whatever it is when we have our humble conference Hall.”
Speaker Oualnayh in response directed that all MDAs to write directly to the Speaker’s office seeking clearance to host such meetings, and desist from the practice of usurping powers of the Speaker’s office.
He said that in such scenarios, the MDAs must write to the speaker seeking the release of these members and also state in their letter if they are preparing transport refund or accommodation in case the meeting is residential.
Basing on contents of the letter, the Speaker’s office would then assess whether Parliament administration had the funds to facilitate the Committees from Parliament’s budget.
“This House has leadership which is known. The leadership of Ministry of Finance or any other MDA does not give you Committee chairpersons authority or direct you to go anywhere. I am the one who does or the deputy speaker. So if now you make secret arrangements with the Ministry of Finance that you just get out without my knowledge then that becomes a big problem. They cannot write to you directly. That would be bad manners. So just follow the procedure,” Oulanyah said.
