KAMPALA – The African Leadership Institute has revealed plans to revamp the Parliamentary scorecard after abandoning the initiative of assessing the performance of MPs in both Parliament and at their constituencies.
The African Leadership Institute last published the Parliamentary scorecard eight years ago with the annual report used to inform citizens of the performance of their representatives at Parliament as well as demand for accountability from their elected MPs in Parliament
The performance evaluation report by the African Leadership Institute came under serious criticism by MPs in the 7th and 8th Parliament with many stating that the findings in the report were exposing them to their voters over underperformance, absenteeism from the plenary and committee meetings.
The last nail in the coffin for the report release was when the report highlighted First Lady Janet Museveni as one of the worst-performing MPs in her then Ruhama County, a seat she left after leaving active politics in the 9th Parliament.
David Pulkol, Director of the African Leadership Institute said that they are not witch-hunting any member of parliament but helping in improving MPs performance on parliamentary work as well as improve on Uganda’s democracy.
He said, “On individual MPs, I think it will show areas they are performing poorly and areas they need to improve. People should just see this as the necessary tools to support our democracy and really strengthen our democracy. They shouldn’t see it as witch-hunting because witch-hunting based on the Hansard, it is either on the Hansard or not. You either spoke or didn’t, you either came to attend or didn’t.”
“This project is focusing on enhancing the democratisation process in Uganda through facilitating “Active and informed citizenry to demand for accountable and responsive leadership,” added Pulkol.
Robert Kintu, Head Data Analysis at African Leadership Institute, said that the project is not aimed at criticising the legislators but for citizens to be informed of what their MPs are doing in their representational role.
Kintu says citizens should know whether their MPs perform the oversight role in their constituencies on behalf of the citizens and also task government on the poor performance at the grassroots.
