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Activists petition Museveni over MPs’ Shs10b
MPs during plenary recently. FILE PHOTO
Activists under their umbrella body, the Civil Society Budget Advocacy group (CSBAG) has petitioned President Museveni indicating that he should not ascent to the Shs10bn that has been allocated to the MPs to fight Covid19.
In their petition, CSBAG indicated that there is a clear contradiction in what the funds are stated by Parliament and what the members wants to use it for and that Members do not have faith in their legitimate role of appropriation through the Government budgets which they say is a vote of no confidence in the system by the House.
“We implore the President not to ascent to the Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2020, but rather send it back with guidance to have the Shs10bn allocated to more tests on Ugandans for Covid-19. We therefore call upon the Members of Parliament to use the official and legitimate process of appropriation to allocate sufficient funds for such interventions which they seek to plug the gap. Using the 10bn in any manner they deem fit is promoting illegitimacy and undermines the prudent public finance management system we are all working to improve,” reads part of their statement.
Last week, during a special plenary session on Thursday where government tabled a proposal to Parliament to borrow $100m from the World Bank for the health sector to help in the fight against the deadly pandemic, the lawmakers wondered why they are not mentioned anywhere in the fight against the pandemic.
This debate took place during the time Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development had presented to the House, for approval, a Shs1.7 trillion loan request, to provide sufficient financial support to mitigate the negative effects on the economy by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Later during the same plenary, it was concluded that each MP would get at least Shs20m to fight covid in their areas at the local level; a decision that has been vehemently criticised by the general public.
Mr Julius Mukunda, the Executive Director of CSBAG said the decision was against the law and was not right for the MPs to get the money during a time like this where the country is struggling to get finances to fight covid19.
“We do agree that Parliament plays an important role of oversight of the Executive functions as mandated by the constitution. We also agree that in the fight against the COVID-19, sensitization of people by their leaders is much needed. The voices of the MPs is therefore crucial. What we contend is the manner in which Parliament handled this matter especially at the time when Government seems resource constrained in its response to the Pandemic,” Mr Mukunda said.
“This can be evidenced by Government request to borrow from World Bank and other sources. The procedure adopted by Parliament of Uganda in this instance is contrary to prudent public finance management dictates in our laws as we point out below,” he added.
