Stop paying absentee MPs

Members of Parliament during a session on Tuesday. It has been reported that the lawmakers shun sessions to engage in own businesses, leaving several issues not debated.

PHOTO BY GEOFFREY SSERUYANGE

It is a shame that at a time when Ugandans are yearning for practical solutions to the endemic challenges they are facing, the MPs are busy wasting time in personal ventures, and others have become too money-minded to the extent that they no longer care about the embarrassment of having empty seats in Parliament.
For weeks now, the House is unable to operate normally due to widespread absenteeism.
In the first one-and-half years of the 9th Parliament, lawmakers used to sit in the House for long hours and looked like they had followed their word to represent their people in real sense, but that vigour made a U-Turn and nose-dived.
In fact, the level of indiscipline in the House these days is unprecedented. It’s strange that the Budgeting process is on and other key bills abandoned half-way in view of lack of quorum, yet the MPs paid to do this job are engaged in other activities.
With all due respect to our “Honorable” members, how can you allow the devil to lead you into temptation to the extent that you no longer care whether your reputation collapses before your voters or not? Surely, it’s indecent for a whole Honourable member to dodge the House with impunity.
As taxpayers, we are tired of paying you for no work done. We cannot keep paying “air suppliers” as if we have all the drugs and health workers we need in hospitals. This is not right. Your impishness defeats the purpose of a Legislature in a young democracy like ours. You are the same people who make the gaudiest noise in the House; yelling at the need to have value for money, accountability and good governance systems in this country, yet you cannot practice what you preach.
It’s a shame that you grill technocrats in your Committees over accountability issues yet you are the same people who sign the attendance book, take tea and bites and disappear into thin air.
Honestly, you should not pocket millions of shillings you have not worked for. Absenteeism in Parliament is not a sign of lethargy; it’s a wake-up call for those in authority to get on their toes and punish the new breed of leaders who have exploited the loopholes in our systems.
Last Tuesday, I was invited to a breakfast meeting with the Government Chief Whip, Ms Kasule Lumumba. In her address to the parliamentary reporters, the issue of absenteeism among MPs came out strongly. By the way, this breakfast meeting, the first one of its kind, took place in one of the beautiful Chogm Hotels in Kampala. The discussions were neat as a new pin and since the Chief Whip’s Office told us the interface would be quarterly, let me use this opportunity to advice whoever is behind this initiative to ensure that next time, we use the Parliament’s Conference Hall to avoid nugatory expenditures. The Parliament Canteen will provide the breakfast!
Malingering
On the issue of malingering in Parliament, the Government Chief Whip told us that absenteeism is corruption and that absentee lawmakers don’t deserve our pity.
She said: “Absenteeism in Parliament has reached a crisis level. Very few of us went through unopposed. There was competition to enter the House and as leaders we must lead by example. When people come here and they don’t want to work, I don’t know why you (the press) don’t want to say that this is corruption.”
Ms Lumumba went on: “This is corruption because we are paid by the taxpayers. When you sit in Parliament whether you have attended or not you’re paid and it’s a form of corruption for members to claim allowances for no work done.”
“We in Parliament need to investigate and come up with resolutions, I would think we need to put our House to order. We need to come up with resolutions about our performance because we have some MPs who stand up and say teachers have not been paid, after one says he or she decides to walk away without even waiting for the response from the minister. That is corruption.”
Fellow citizens, absenteeism in Parliament is alarming to the extent that there are even MPs who say nothing on the floor (the political counterfeits) but have made in a habit of sneaking to the foyer to look for gullible journalists to give bogus comments.
They disguise their incompetence and trick their voters who watch them on TV and listen to them, ranting on radios as if they were making submissions on the floor of Parliament. If this is not theft, then what is it?
There are even others who raise matters of national importance and walk away without looking at the business on the order paper.
I appreciate that some of our members are too indebted and instead of spending time in the House, they are busy chasing deals. That could not be bad, but for how long are we going to tolerate this?
Ms Lumumba also said if the members did not stop the habit, they would be named and shamed.
So how else can vanity be restored in the House? Well, the Speaker must wield the stick and punish the absentees.
It’s annoying that a Parliament of 386 members can have less than 50 at a single session. This is unacceptable and there is no way Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and her deputy Jacob Oulanyah can allow this to continue.
Although the Rules of Procedure are obvious on absenteeism in Parliament, no member has ever been punished under the same rules.
Quoting Article 83 of the Constitution, Ms Kadaga last year told us that MPs who absent themselves from Parliament without notifying her within the required 15 days shall lose their seats. It is not that there are no offenders; it is just that we don’t care. For once, let the Committee chairpersons help the Speaker identify the culprits.
In case, you can’t grasp what is at stake, let me remind you that, because of your unwarrantable number, you have become a liability to the taxpayer. Can you prove that you deserve pampering at the expense of other Ugandans?
MPs salaries
On average, an MP takes home about Shs20m monthly and are entitled to a number of allowances, including constituency facilitation of about Shs3.2m and mileage allowance of about Shs4.5m depending on where one comes from.
Other entitlements include committee sitting allowance, town-running allowance, a brand new vehicle of [usually] Shs103m, committee allowances for chairpersons and vice chairpersons, medical allowance, gratuity and out of pocket allowances, among others.
I, therefore, suggest that the MPs who miss the House/ committees without justification should be forced to pay a fine, the equivalent of what a member earns in sitting allowance in addition to naming and shaming the culprits.
We should go back to the old system where allowances are pegged on performance.
Otherwise, as the situation stands now, even MPs who are rare in Parliament will continue to smile all the way to the bank as taxpayers break their backs to pay them. Madam Speaker, it is embarrassing to see empty seats all the time as if there is a booby trap in the House.