How 11th Parliament has performed one year later

Passing Bills
One of the key roles of the Parliament is to pass laws for the good governance of Uganda.  These are done through pre-legislative scrutiny of Bills referred to Committees of Parliament.

Five months into its term, the Parliament passed its maiden Bill- the Administration of Parliament (Amendment) Bill on October 5, 2021.

Less than a month later, President Museveni assented to the Bill, making it a law.
Parliament followed this with the passing of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Amendment Bill a month later. 

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 The Bill allowed beneficiaries, who are 45 years and above and have saved for 10 years and more, to receive mid-term benefits.

Other Bills passed by the Parliament include East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) (Special Provisions) Bill, 2021, Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Landlord and Tenants Bill, 2021 which was later on rejected by the President, Mining and Minerals Bill, 2021, The Income Tax (Amendment) (No.2) Bill, 2021, Fisheries and Aquaculture Bill, 2021, Public Finance Management (Amendment) Bill, 2021, The Succession (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

Others are Tax Appeals Tribunal (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Stamp Duty (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Mining (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Fish (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
Parliament is a supposed to process both private members Bill and government business. 

Even though some private members have attempted to table new Bills, the government has dragged its feet in issuing certificates of financial implications to the members.

While the Legislature seems to have set a record in the number of Bills so far passed, questions have been raised on whether many understood the content of the Bills they were passing, especially regarding the Mining and Minerals Bill. 

Ms Doreen Nyanjura, the deputy lord mayor of Kampala, said a number of the legislators she called did not understand a thing about the Mining and Minerals Bill, 2021.

“Yesterday, I called four Members of Parliament to pick some information about the Mining and Minerals Bill and they were totally green! People, this Country is doomed,” she tweeted shortly after the Bill was passed.
Dr Sarah Bireete, the executive director of Center for Constitutional Governance and chairperson of East & Horn of Africa Election Observers Network, wondered how the Bill was passed without consultation.

“How was the Mining and Minerals Bill passed? How were the stakeholder consultations done? Were artisan miners consulted? Were the communities in mining areas consulted? And did Parliament have a quorum?” she questioned.

Several legislators have in the past admitted that some of the Bills were passed hurriedly without proper scrutiny. They said some of the Bills needed benchmarking, but because of underfunding and limited time to process the Bills, they had to rush with some of them to beat deadlines.

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Critics, however, believe this is a ploy by the government to deliberately force the legislators to pass laws that would have faced Opposition and better scrutiny if enough time was given.

Taking on corruption in government
The 11th Parliament has had to deal expeditiously with high caliber corruption cases involving both individuals and State institutions. 

On June 30, 2021, the then Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, who has since then been elevated to the Speaker following the death of her predecessor Oulanyah, instituted a parliamentary committee to investigate the Covid-19 response expenditure by different government agencies across the country.

This followed numerous allegations of bloated expenditure by different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Again on November 10, 2021, another select committee was instituted to investigate corruption allegations against Dr Monica Musenero, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovations, after she was accused by the Ntungamo Member of Parliament, Mr Yona Musinguzi, of misuse of funds so far released towards the development of a vaccine under the Presidential Scientific Initiative on Epidemics (PRESIDE).

While the team that investigated the Ministry of Health and other government MDAs presented its report to Parliament in July, calling for forensic audit and other punitive measures, the Dr Musenero report has since been shelved after Mr Museveni openly backed and threatened to go after those who accused her.

The select team headed by Mr Abdu Katuntu, the Bugweri County MP, asked the Auditor General to institute a forensic audit into all Covid-19 expenditures by the Ministry of Health to ascertain how more than Shs2.3 trillion, which was appropriated to the ministry, was spent.

Three weeks ago, the country was yet again thrown into another scandal after it emerged that the Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the government, signed a dubious deal with a private investor, offering a perk of tax incentives and a free ride into Uganda’s coffee business.

The deal caused widespread condemnation and Parliament tasked the Committee on Trade, Tourism and Industry to investigate the deal and report back to Parliament. 

During the investigations, different sectors, including several government officials and majority of the sector players such as the legal minds opposed the deal. 

However, the deal received the backing of the Finance minister, Mr Matia Kasaija, the Attorney General, Mr Kiryowa Kiwanuka, and the direct beneficiaries of the deal, the Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited.

During the National Resistance Movement (NRM) caucus at Kololo, sources who attended the meeting said while the President had put up a spirited fight in defence of the deal, he eventually relented when the NRM caucus members flatly rejected the deal and demanded a review.

The committee report that should have been debated within a week has since been shelved, with the deputy Speaker last week stating that they are still reading the report.

Mr Chris Obore, the director of communications at Parliament, yesterday told this newspaper that the committee did its part and anytime the report will be presented before the house for debate.

In February, the leader of Opposition in Parliament, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, launched a programme to improve the performance of the legislators in the House. 

He said under the programme, legislators, majorly the Opposition members, majority of who are still relatively new, will be put in sector-based clusters to build their capacity and enable them to make informed and knowledgeable contributions to Parliamentary business.

“We want to empower the Opposition MPs in a particularised way to enable them to do their job. Through the clusters, the MPs will be supported by a technical team of researchers and experts so that at the end of the day, we have particular people we are empowered to speak about a specific subject matter with enough knowledge and information,” Mr Mpuuga said at the time.

He said through the programme, Opposition legislators will be mentored to pursue and build partnerships with various stakeholders in conduct of Parliamentary activities.

“To achieve this, we have to empower our members to be able to effectively and efficiently keep the government in check,” he said.

Parliament speaks out . . . House’s view

Mr Obore yesterday said Parliament has done exceedingly well given the circumstances under which the 11th Parliament assumed responsibilities. 

He said all the businesses presented by the government have so far been cleared in record time.
“To the best of our knowledge, this parliament for the last one year has done exceedingly well. The government business that has been brought before the parliament has never been delayed. Anything the government has brought has been passed. That is why the parliament exists, to facilitate the work of the executive and so far all the things the executive have brought have been passed,”  he said.

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He added that Parliament within the last one year excelled in its oversight roles by investigating corruption cases and monitoring government programmes to ensure that there is value for money.

“Parliament has also done oversight roles, starting with the Emyooga. Parliament has even removed the constituency fund and put it in the parish development model. Parliament is doing its part and is doing it exceedingly well. No other parliament has passed 12 bills in one year. The parliament has done oversight on government programmes very well that’s why you see the coffee deal if it was another Parliament they would have taken a lot of time. The committee of trade quickly investigated it and there is already a report before the Speaker,”  he said.