Who will feed MPs during Gulu sittings?
Members of Parliament during a plenary chaired by Speaker Anita Among at Parliament on July 2. Ms Among’s decision to convene plenary sittings across all four corners of the country has opened a can of worms. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA.
Two locally contracted mobile catering service providers are expected to provide meals and refreshments to lawmakers during the regional parliamentary sitting that kicks off with a set of field activities on August 27, the Monitor has established.
Service provider speaks out
Whereas locally-based Gulu Women Mobile Catering Services will provide meals and refreshments from inside the sitting confinement at Kaunda Grounds, Lira-based Yendo Catering Services will provide the same for security officers and drivers at Gulu Prison Primary School.
Ms Santa Obwoya, the director of Gulu Women Mobile Catering Services, declined to disclose the contract amount.
She, however, said her group and another from Lira District (Yendo Catering Services) were contracted and will provide meals and refreshments between August 27 and August 30.
“Tomorrow (August 27), we are tasked with preparing meals and serving 350 people; these are officials described to us as the advance team, and on August 28, 29, and 30, we are to serve 1,000 people with food and refreshments,” Ms Obwoya said.
She said the deal means a lot of her association with 72 members.
“Parliament did well to issue such deals to us, and it shows how it’s considerate of our development as local institutions; we are 72 men and women, and that money means a lot to each of us in the group.”
It was high-level bidding; we did bidding; one is from Lira, Yendo Catering Services, and he will cook from Gulu Prison PS, where security officers and drivers will be eating from there,” Ms Obwoya added.
MPs have been booked at major hotels in the city, including Acholi Inn, Bomah Hotel, and Churchill Courts Hotel.
The regional plenary sittings, according to press statements, are being held to uphold its vision of a people-centred Parliament, which also aligns with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) values of open, transparent parliaments close to ordinary citizens.
Our efforts to get comments from Mr Chris Obore, the Parliament’s director for communications, and public affairs, on how much will be spent on meals and refreshments tendered to the local service providers, were not successful by press time.
However, in an August 22 statement, Mr Obore said all the funds spent on the sitting will be audited accordingly.
“The ultimate audit and value for money for these sittings will be assessed at the end of the exercise as is the practice of the [Parliamentary] Commission, and the variable to be employed will be the extent to which resolutions passed therein have been implemented,” he said.
