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NRM Kyankwanzi retreat paralyses Parliament
NRM Secretary General Kasule Lumumba (R) addresses President Museveni (C), First Lady Janet Museveni, Independent legislators and other NRM dignitaries in Kyankwanzi yesterday. PHOTO BY GEOFFREY SSERUYANGE
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With this committee already behind schedule as it was expected to have filed a report by January 11, Opposition MPs Maxwell Akora and Patrick Amuriat will this week visit a UPDF facility in Tororo and the Army Engineering Brigade in Lugazi in the hope that a “report will be out within a few weeks”, according to Mr Akora.
PARLIAMENT- The ongoing National Resistance Movement retreat in Kyankwanzi has stalled critical Parliamentary business with the four accountability committees that had lined up key audit reports coming off as the hardest hit.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Local Government Accounts Committee, Government Assurances Committee and the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises had scheduled presentation of a range of hard-hitting audit reports that have now been deferred due to lack of quorum.
A parliamentary select committee that has been investigating corruption allegations in the botched procurement of a contractor for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway line has also been suspended as its chairman, Mr Kafeero Sekitoleko and three other members, travelled to Kyankwanzi.
With this committee already behind schedule as it was expected to have filed a report by January 11, Opposition MPs Maxwell Akora and Patrick Amuriat will this week visit a UPDF facility in Tororo and the Army Engineering Brigade in Lugazi in the hope that a “report will be out within a few weeks”, according to Mr Akora.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Ms Alice Alaso, the PAC chairperson, indicated that over four investigation reports on different government agencies were scheduled to be tabled in Parliament this week until the House was deferred to pave way for the NRM retreat.
PAC was scheduled to table audit reports on the Uganda Virus Research Institute, Uganda Management Institute, Office of the Prime Minister and a compendium on Mulago National Referral Hospital, regional referral hospitals and health institutes such as the Uganda Cancer Institute.
“Completing the reports is one thing and Parliament discussing them is another. Next week, I have another 15 to 20 reports but I do not think they will be considered because everyone is engrossed in the Kyankwanzi retreat,” Ms Alaso said.
Parliament will resume on January 17 but it remains unclear whether NRM MPs will be available for Parliamentary work as their last retreat in February 2014 was followed by upcountry sojourns to drum up support for a disputed resolution endorsing President Museveni as sole candidate for the party’s 2016 presidential race.
Mr Kasiano Wadri, the chairman of the Government Assurances Committee, revealed that the gist of the business affected was about meeting with the Works minister and officers of the Uganda National Roads Authority about progress on Ntoroko-Bunduibugyo-Fort Portal Road and the rural electrification programme in Arua.
“We cannot finish our work on schedule because we have lost time and we can never be on schedule. Majority of the members of this committee are NRM and with the absence of ministers, we cannot hold meetings,” Mr Wadri said.
Bukoto East MP Florence Namayanja said several national corporations were due for interviews this week before the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises but were put off at the last minute.
