Prime
Paying ex-MPs sets bad precedent
The media recently carried a story to the effect that Parliament was mooting to pay Shs100m each to former legislators from the first to the six parliament. The story came at time when some economic experts have been expressing worry on how the Ugandan economy is not doing well.
One of the experts is the chairman of National Planning Authority, who recently expressed fear that Uganda was not likely to achieve the much anticipated lower middle-income status by 2020. He cited, among the reasons, that the economy is growing at a rate lower than they had forecasted in NDPII.
Uganda is in the process of increasing its civil servants salaries, but some won’t benefit in the financial year of 2018/19 because there is not enough money in public cofers. And the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, has often voiced his concern over the same.
The question is, where will government get money to pay former MPs? Moreover, government used to pay those MPs hefty salaries and allowances.
Can the proponents of this pay project accompany it with investigation on those legislators in their days made any exceptional contribution in as far as quality of debate, laws and policies, etc, to warrant this ‘golden handshake’ to ensure that there is value for money?
We are often told that parliamentarians are among the highest paid leaders in the country. Therefore, when I hear that when some of them leave Parliament they become paupers, it sends a bad signal.
It means that either they are weighed down by the demands of their constituency to the extent of touching their own salaries to give their voters money. Is it possible that whenever they step on the gates of Parliament, complacency sets in and they start to live beyond their means and don’t bother to invest their money wisely?
The doctrine of separation of powers is on test. Will the executive approve this initiative? If yes, won’t it set bad precedent to the current and future legislators?
There is a lesson to be learnt here by the current legislators, public officials and other leaders. This is because sometimes they come out with policies and laws that ‘squeeze’ the private sector out of business.
Now that some of their colleagues appear to be feeling the heat in the kitchen, they should be mindful of any decision they make.
One of the intended beneficiaries in the 6th Parliament SAID many of his former colleagues are not employed as it is not easy to get employed after serving as an MP.
Kennedy Musekura,
[email protected]
