Oulanyah tired of presiding over loan requests

The deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Jacob Oulanyah presiding over plenary recently. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • Ms Angelline Osegge, the chairperson on PAC-Uganda said the Deputy Speaker was partially right, many reports have been adequately processed on time, but they take many months on the order paper before they are debated.

Kampala. The deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Jacob Oulanyah, has said he is tired of endless loan requests by the government that have caused the country sink into great debt.
Mr Oulanyah was yesterday addressing African lawmakers under the African Organisation of Public Accounts Committees (AFROPAC), at the Commonwealth Resort Hotel in Munyonyo.

He said the practice of government to present loan request at every House sitting is sickening.
“I am tired of this begging, I am tired of approving loans, every single sitting of Parliament. Yes, I have said it, I am tired,” he said.
He added: “ Do you know how difficult it is to do something you do not like, something that you hate, do you know how painful it is?”
Uganda is currently nursing a debt burden of $15b, about Shs56 trillion.
The dilemma, however, Mr Oulanyah said, is that without the loans, government programmes fail to run.

AFROPAC is an umbrella forum for parliamentary oversight committees with membership from across the continent. The one-week symposium that started yesterday is running under the theme; “One voice for PAC and similar committees in managing public debts and fight corruption.”
Mr Oulanyah also blamed the rising cases of corruption on huge backlogs suffered by accountability committees.

Citing Uganda for instance, Mr Oulanyah said Parliament is supposed to take action on the Auditor General’s report within six months but on the contrary, committees take years to process the reports and by the time they are done, action in many cases cannot be taken.
“You bring a report to Parliament for oversight after 10 years; by that time, the people who were accounting officers then, are now members of the accountability committees,” Mr Oulanyah said.
Ms Angelline Osegge, the chairperson on PAC-Uganda said the Deputy Speaker was partially right, many reports have been adequately processed on time, but they take many months on the order paper before they are debated.