KAMPALA – Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has banned MPs from defending themselves against the Shs10b as part of the Shs284b to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus in the country. It’s said that this money will be shared amongst MPs with each set to get Shs20M.
The Speaker made the directive during Thursday’s plenary sitting in response to public criticism over the decision by Parliament to allocate themselves money to fight Coronavirus yet health professionals don’t even have the necessary protective gears
The Speaker said, “I want to appeal to MPs, the issue of Shs10b is an issue of the Parliament Commission. Don’t continue talking about it because you don’t know about it. It’s not your business, just go on with your lives.”
While appearing on NBS Television on Wednesday, Kadaga defended the Shs10b Supplementary funding revealing that some of the funds would cater for the Parliament’s Health Committee, in addition to meeting costs of MPs messages on electronic media, in diverse languages.
“We have ambulances commandeered by Ministry of Health. The drivers have to be paid and ambulances serviced. MPs are also busy on advocacy. Committees are following up on what is happening in hospitals and they are reporting to the country,” said Kadaga.
However, the expenditure has attracted heavy criticism from the public describing the expenditure as nurgatory with calls to Ugandan MPs to emulate their counterparts in Ghana, Botswana who have taken pay cut to raise funds to fight Coronavirus.
