Prime
IGG urges Parliament to act swiftly on debating reports
Inspector General of Government, Irene Mulyagonja. FILE PHOTO
Kampala-The Inspector General of Government, Ms Irene Mulyagonja, has asked Parliament to expedite the debate of her reports so that action is taken on the recommendations her office puts forward in order to effectively execute its mandate.
By law, the Inspectorate of Government is mandated to submit bi-annual reports to Parliament so that they are discussed for action to be taken on the recommendations.
Ms Mulyagonga yesterday said the reports were only discussed by the 9th Parliament once with an omnibus handling reports made in six years.
“Parliament should give precedence to our reports and discuss them more expeditiously so that our recommendations can be acted on instead of piling them every year. The last Parliament is the first to discuss our reports and it handled six years all together.” Ms Mulyagonja said.
“I am not saying Parliament is not supporting us, no, we have been interacting when invited to appear before the committees,” she added.
The IGG was speaking at her office in Kampala during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Inspectorate of Government of Uganda and the Danish Parliament.
The memorandum is aimed at cooperation between the two countries in handling Ombudsman issues.
Ms Mulyagonja signed on behalf of Uganda while Mr Jorgen Steen Sørensen, the Danish Parliamentary Ombudsman, signed on behalf of the Kingdom of the Republic of Denmark.
The IGG said failure by Parliament to discuss her reports has stalled the recurring recommendation for the establishment of the Leadership Code Tribunal which would be trying and punishing public officers and leaders who breach the leadership code of conduct.
Since the Leadership Code Act was enacted in 2002, the establishment of a leadership code tribunal has hung in the balance.
When Justice Faith Mwondha, the former IGG, took action against Mr John Ken Lukyamuzi, the then Rubaga South MP, for failing to declare his income, assets and liabilities, the legislator successfully challenged his suspension, arguing that in the absence of the tribunal, the IGG had overstepped her mandate.
The Supreme Court, in its ruling, urged government to amend the Leadership Code Act and provide for a tribunal to try all those in breach of the leadership code.
The Parliament director of communications and public affairs, Mr Chris Obore, told Daily Monitor in a telephone interview yesterday that Parliament welcomed such feedback from the IGG and it will be taken to the attention of the Speaker for handling.
“I will discuss the matter with the Clerk of Parliament so that she brings to the attention of the Speaker. The Speaker is the one to put the reports of IGG to the business committee so that they are scheduled for discussion in the House,” Mr Obore said.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Jacob Oulanyah, suggested that the inspectorate, which currently reports to Parliament twice each year for accountability does, it once.
Mr Oulanyah also suggested that the local governments, which report to Parliament once a year, should report twice.
He said this will help in addressing the backlog of reports that Parliament grapples with from the two institutions.
“It has created a kind of backlog in the way these things are resolved. Either we go back to reporting back once every year – for the inspectorate – or make a precedent and require the local governments to report twice a year,” he said.
Mr Oulanyah said this during a meeting with Mr Sørensen who had paid him a courtesy call after signing an MoU with Uganda.
“We also discussed a number of specific issues, some more or less abstract but some more or less specific on the way to operate an Ombudsman institution, how to process complaints, which relationship you should seek with the authorities and so on,” Mr Sørensen said.
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