KAMPALA – The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has on Thursday, August 22, issued a directive demanding the Minister of State for Microfinance, Haruna Kasolo to explain the allegations that microfinance institutions are misallocating civil servants’ loans to bank accounts which has resulted in financial losses; it is also alleged that workers’ salaries have been embezzled under the guise of loan repayment.
The directive followed a concern raised by the Agago Woman MP, Franca Akello who said that, civil servants have for long endured the pain of having their salaries deducted under unfamiliar circumstances with their bankers informing them of loans they have with financial institutions, which has left many perplexed on when they committed themselves to the fraudulent loans.
However, despite raising the issue before Parliament on three occasions, Hon Kasolo has eluded the subject by failing to explain why these civil servants are duped and continue to lose their money without any explanation from government.
Hon Kadaga demanded for Kasolo’s appearance within 30minutes to respond to the concerns that were raised only to realize that the Minister has not been in attendance for a long time.
This prompted the Speaker to order Kasolo to make an appearance next week without fail and reminded him not to dodge parliament sittings since he is a Member of Parliament adding it was about time the Minister got reminded of his legislative duties.
The State Minister for Planning, David Bahati made a request to allow the Ministry respond to the matter saying:
“We have established that Hon. Kasolo is in Masindi at a function and it wouldn’t be possible for him to come to the house within 30 minutes, we want to apologise. We request that on his behalf, we can make a presentation on Tuesday.”
