Prime
Why should our MPs be determining their pay?
Cissy N Kagaba
What you need to know:
- Way forward. Our country’s resources ought to be channelled to efforts at improving service delivery in key sectors such as education and health that require urgent attention as compared to MPs unending demands. Selfish demands like these only justify the notion that Parliament has become a liability to our nation.
It has emerged that MPs are mooting a plan to more than double their basic pay from Shs11m to Shs24m. The planned increment exemplifies the highest degree of greed, myopia and insatiability of our legislators. This kind of self-centeredness that has ravaged our law makers is not only disappointing, but also disheartening. What is even more shocking is the fact that government is already facing a huge budget shortfall of more than Shs9 trillion.
Ironically, other public servants like doctors, who have dared to ask for salary increment, have been branded unpatriotic. President Museveni during this years’ Labour Day celebrations in Sembabule District, referred to striking doctors as ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘enemies of the State’. If doctors demanding Shs5m basic pay are ‘enemies of the State’, I wonder what MPs, who are increasing their pay to Shs24m are? What makes MPs so special?
MPs in Uganda are already among the highest paid public servants, bagging a monthly consolidated pay averaging Shs25m, on top of other privileges, including a car allowance and a gratuity/pension scheme. With this proposal, their monthly pay could increase to Shs35m.
One can safely conclude that the motivation of majority of our MPs is not legislating, but laying their hands at whatever monetary opportunity that comes their way. The implication of this stealthily introduced proposal is that taxpayers will continue shouldering the burden of an increasingly gratuitous Parliament that is completely disconnected from the dreams and aspirations of ordinary Ugandans.
With Uganda’s Parliament currently comprised of 451 legislators, the implication is that an additional Shs90b will be required to meet this superfluous demand. Annually, taxpayers will have to cough Shs129b as basic pay for MPs. With new districts and municipalities coming on board in the next financial year, one can only expect the wage bill for our legislators to go up.
The Ugandan taxpayer is already paying through the nose to sustain an obscenely huge Parliament. This proposal is not only an insult, but also a display of the worst form of abuse of power, impunity and arrogance. The impact is that these selfish demands will be met by Ugandan taxpayers through over taxation.
Already, proposals to tax saving and cooperative schemes, social media and the 1 per cent tax on mobile money transactions have drawn mixed reactions from the public.
The argument from Parliament that MPs are comparatively underpaid is unrealistic given our level of GDP and stunted growth registered in the previous years. More to that, pay should be commensurate to output. We already know that several bills are pending before Parliament and backlogs of reports are waiting discussion at committee level. On several occasions, Parliament has had to be adjourned due to lack of quorum. Surely, are we getting value for money from our Parliament?
If this proposal is made in good faith as some circles claim, why is Parliament and ministry of Finance so eager to keep it out of the public eye? And should MPs be determining their pay? Isn’t this a clear conflict of interest? What happened to the plan of establishing an independent Salaries and Remunerations Commission? MPs, in their selfish minds, of course, cannot allow this to happen, or if it were to happen, they would definitely excuse themselves from this arrangement.
In 2015, the Constitutional Court outlawed MPs from determining their own emoluments without approval of government through a resolution, motion or Bill. In Uganda where the Legislature and Executive are fused like conjoined twins, this ruling may be of minimal value.
Our country’s resources ought to be channelled to efforts at improving service delivery in key sectors such as education and health that require urgent attention as compared to MPs unending demands. Selfish demands like these only justify the notion that Parliament has become a liability to our nation.
Ms Kagaba works with Anti-Corruption
Coalition Uganda.
