Chogm debate flops again

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee yesterday failed for the second day running to table its much-anticipated investigative report into the abuse of funds meant for the Commonwealth summit.

The fate of the report, whose findings implicate several top government officials in abuse of office and financial impropriety, remains in jeopardy, according to the committee’s chairperson.

“It seems some people have a deliberate plan to fail the report and they are using the Speaker to play their delaying tactics but they will not succeed,” said Mr Nandala Mafabi.
“The mafias have caused a crisis in Parliament so that the Chogm report is shelved,” said the Budadiri West MP. “It’s painful to see people busy playing games when more than Shs500 billion was stolen. All this is public money and Ugandans have a right to know who took their money.”

Twists and turns
Mr Nandala’s outburst followed another day of twists and turns as the report was reportedly listed on the order paper of Parliament, only to be relegated—and later not tabled at all.
By midday yesterday, the report’s tabling was not listed on the order paper, even after the PAC team led by Mr Nandala had submitted a copy to Deputy Speaker Rebecca Kadaga an hour earlier.

Sources said later at about 1.30pm, PAC received a communication from Ms Kadaga that they would table the report. But when the plenary session commenced at 2pm, the report had been listed as the sixth item among “other business”.

Ms Kadaga before briefly suspending the House in the afternoon, said she would let the report be tabled but without debate. “I will allow the Chogm report to be tabled but it will not be debated immediately. The debate should take place at least three days after tabling of the report,” she said.

But when she returned to the House after a 15-minute break that had been occasioned after opposition MPs she suspended for indiscipline refused to leave Parliament, Ms Kadaga suspended the sitting with no mention of the Chogm report.
According to Mr Mafabi, it is deliberate that the Chogm report is not finding space on Parliament’s schedule.

“When I went to the Deputy Speaker, she even told me that if the public and the donors are asking me for the Chogm report I should switch off my phone and go to the sauna. You can clearly see how mafias planned to ditch this report,” he told Daily Monitor.
The Government Chief Whip, Mr Daudi Migereko, who had been accused by some MPs of plotting the Chogm report blockade to allow one MP write a minority report, has denied any such plot.

Bunyaruguru MP Gaudioso Kabondo, said to be the brain behind the minority report, also denied the claims. “I am not doing any minority report, such rumours are baseless,” he said when contacted.

Danish Ambassador Nathalia Feinberg said yesterday, “As development partners we (alongside with Ugandans) have been following closely the hearings of PAC on the Chogm case and corruption in general.

“We hope that the Speaker of Parliament will ensure swift tabling of the PAC report, and that government operationalises an action plan that takes into account the PAC report recommendations including recovery of misappropriated funds, sanctioning and prosecution.”