KAMPALA – The Parliamentary Commission has described as rumours reports that the Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Chris Ariko Obore has been fired, saying they are not aware of any investigation that was conducted on the procedure used to recruit him.
The revelation was made by Peter Ogwang and Cecilia Ogwal who are members of the Parliamentary Commission while appearing before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee where they appeared to present the 2019/2020 national budget for the institution of Parliament.
Hamson Obua (Ajuri County) tasked the Commissioners to clarify on reports that the Inspector General of Government (IGG) had investigated and recommended to have Obore sacked with claims that his appointment in 2015 was marred with illegality and there is need to have the whole process reviewed.
Ogwang responded saying; “We sit in the Parliamentary Commission it is us with the mandate to hire and fire, we aren’t aware of anything. First of all, I am not aware whether IGG has written to Chris Obore, I am not aware of any director of the parliamentary commission, who has been fired because it is only the commission that has the powers to hire and fire and as far as we (commission) are concerned, every director including Obore is in office working.”
Cecilia Ogwal also weighed into the matter arguing that the Rules and Procedures of Parliament don’t allow the Commission to discuss matters of rumours.
She explained: “I can confirm with certainty that all those matters we are talking about hasn’t reached the Commission if there is anything taking place is based on rumours and assumptions, based on guesswork. It is unfair for us to waste time on rumours.”
The questions from MPs follow reports that Clerk to Parliament, Jane Kibirige authored a letter on 5th March 2019 giving Mr. Obore 14 days to respond to the IGG’s letter that claimed that his recruitment was founded on illegality as it was in contravention of the Parliamentary Service (Staff) Regulations, 2001.
In a related development, Parliament is seeking to have its budget increased by Shs173Bn to Shs716bn for the 2019/2020 Financial Year up from Shs497.8Bn of which Shs20Bn will be used by Committees to undertake oversight activities and the balance will be used for recruitment of staff and cater for MPs emoluments.
