MPs’ Rwakitura trip causes storm

Shadow Attorney General Abdu Katuntu yesterday said the President’s hosting of his party’s MPs infringed the country’s laws governing public expenditure because State House does not have a financial vote to conduct NRM activities. “This is the usual abuse of public resources and misuse of public money to cover selfish interests. We have been telling them that NRM uses government money to conduct party activities and you can now see,” he said.

Anti-poverty lecture
The legislators on Sunday travelled to Mr Museveni’s country home in Rwakitura where they were lectured on how to get their constituents out of poverty in a meeting that ended at 10p.m. They later spent the night at Masaka’s Golf Lane and Zebra hotels, which on average would have cost the tax payer at least Shs100,000 for each of the estimated 300 MPs. They are, today, expected to meet at State House, Entebbe.

During the trip, Mr Museveni, who is also NRM chairman, made arrangements for them to visit model farmers in the area. Information Minister Mary Karooro Okurut yesterday refuted accusations that her party used taxpayers’ money to host its members. “NRM has been funding its activities. Monthly deductions are made from NRM MPs’ emoluments; Members of the Central Executive Committee also make monthly contributions,” she said in a text message to Daily Monitor.

Not broke
“These are just a few of the sources. As a political party, NRM also mobilises resources. The party is not too broke to fund such an important activity,” she said. But Ms Okurut could not say whether her party has complied with the law requiring political parties to provide full disclosure of sources of funding. She referred this paper to the party finance secretary, Ms Robinah Nabbanja, whose phone went unanswered.

Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga mid-last week initially intimated that all MPs had been invited to this retreat. But when opposition MP John Ken Lukyamuzi asked Deputy Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, who presided over proceedings last Friday for clarification of the matter, the latter told him not to attend if he thought it was unconstitutional.

NRM Chief Whip John Nasasira later said those who were supposed to attend received invitation cards. “(If you have not received any), it means it is either on the way, or you are not supposed to attend,” he said.

Presidential press secretary Tamale Mirundi couldn’t say where the money came from. “The money is not a big deal; so long as it is not coming from Al Shabaab,” he said yesterday. “It does not matter which government department it is being drawn from. What should take the attention of the population is why over 300 Ugandans should converge in one place.”

Ms Cissy Kagaba, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, however, said such unclear expenditure is illegal and contradicts intentions of addressing the current economic strife. “The level of impunity in this country is on the increase,” she said. “How do they account for this money they keep wasting because even those who give it out cannot hold State House accountable?”

Oulanyah in spotlight
Mr Lukyamuzi yesterday said: “This is tantamount to embezzlement. It means the money was diverted to fund their party activities without parliamentary approval.”

Meanwhile, the impartiality of the Deputy Speaker came into question after he attended the retreat. Although he belongs to the ruling party, Mr Oulanyah is expected to be impartial and should never participate in partisan political events. But Mr Oulanyah said: “I am an agricultural economist by profession and the retreat had things that would benefit the people I represent, and it had nothing to do with politics and Parliament work. That’s why I went.”

At State House today, sources said Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi is expected to present a paper on Mr Museveni’s controversial proposal to scrap the constitutional right to bail for certain offences. “He (Mbabazi) is supposed to present two documents regarding his findings on the proposal,” a source said yesterday.