Stop idle talk, Speaker Among tells ministers

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Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has asked ministers to stop their idle and corridor talks in Cabinet over how Parliament handled the recently passed Bills on the rationalisation of government agencies.

Among says rather than talking in Cabinet that MPs were bribed to reject or pass certain Bills, the ministers should bring their concerns before Parliament where legislative matters are addressed.

Among told the House that Legislation is done in the House and not in Cabinet much as it’s the Executive that brings the Bills.

“Legislation is done in Parliament. Stop blaming the members. If you are failing to do the work, it’s not the MPs that are failing. If you have issues with Parliament, come and address them from here and not where we are not. So, when we hear members going to discuss and having idle talks in Cabinet that members have been bribed and I'm repeating idle talks. Why don’t you come and argue your case here in the House. If we continue having those corridor talks, please stop. We legislate for this country and you are saying we rejected the reports, we are not doing anything. If we are not doing anything close Parliament,” the visibly angry Among said during plenary on Thursday, May 2, 2024.

She wondered whether some ministers are appointed to come only to see and then go and badmouth Parliament.

She encouraged sector ministers whose Bills were rejected and feel hurt by the decision of Parliament to review them and bring them back for reconsideration.

However, she urged the Executive to carefully study the concerns of the House and recommendations on the concluded rationalisation Bills and address them.

According to Among, notably, the MPs were concerned about the quality of drafting of the Bills, the defective certificates of financial implications, which fell short of section 76 of the Public Finance Management Act 2015 and the effect of rationalising some entities on actual service delivery.

She urged the ministers to ensure that they do a thorough analysis of the aforementioned concerns and not to trade blames.

“I also urge the sector ministers to always be present in the house. You cannot say the House has rejected; the house has been bribed when you have not been in the house. Parliament is not a theater of Legislation and therefore legislative matters are addressed here in Parliament not somewhere else because we always regard government business as a priority as highlighted in rule 25 (1) of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament,” she said.

Background 

Parliament last week finalised the debate on a raft of bills seeking rationalisation of government agencies back to their mother Ministries.

The process, which started way back in February saw 29 Bills discussed of which 22 were passed, eight rejected and seven withdrawn by the Executive.

Some of the Bills that were either deferred or rejected include the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS), Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), Cotton Development Organisation (CDO), Diary Development Authority (DDA), and National Forestry Authority (NFA).

Some of the Bills that were approved for mainstreaming are Warehouse Receipt System, Trypanosomiasis Control Council, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Board, National Population Council (NPC), National Library of Uganda, National Youth Council and National Council for Older Persons.

Others are the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, National Children’s Authority, Uganda National Commission for UNESCO and Higher Education Students Financing Board (HESFB).

Two of the Bills that sought merging of Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre (UWEC) and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), and also Export Promotions Board (UEPB) and Uganda Free Zones Authority (UFZA) were approved.

Parliament is expected to forward the approved Bills to President Yoweri Museveni for assenting. The President has powers to either assent to them as approved by Parliament or reject them and send some back for review.

Although the Constitution establishes a definite number of Government agencies, including constitutional commissions, authorities, boards, local councils and other statutory bodies to perform certain specified constitutional functions, over the years, however, there has been a proliferation of agencies established by Acts of Parliament, Executive Orders and administrative arrangements.

Whereas most of the agencies are necessary due to the critical nature of the functions they perform, Government established that a certain limited number of agencies were established without due consideration to the aspects of institutional harmony, functional duplications, overlaps and affordability.

Government has established that some agencies have served the purpose for which they were established and others agencies have outlived their purpose and therefore the need for rationalization.

“More importantly, the proliferation of agencies has created mandate overlaps and jurisdictional ambiguities among the agencies. Additionally, the high cost of administering the agencies has drained the national treasury at the expense of effective service delivery. This has overstretched the capacity of Government to sustain them,” the Minister for Public Service Muruli Mukasa said while presenting the Bills in Parliament.

During the debate last week, Among said all the decisions on the rationalisation were based on members’ views and opinion about the state of the agencies.

She dismissed reports that members were bribed in order to reject some of the proposals to transfer the agencies.

“I want to current some of the misinformation in the media that members were given financial inducement for the decision we took especially when we rejected the transfer of UNRA, NITA-U, Coffee Development Authority, etc. The Code of conduct for MPs is contained in the Rules of Procedure of Parliament. I want to tell you people alleging this, that members legislated for their people. There’s no way MPs in the Cotton or Coffee producing areas would accept to be bribed in order to pass a Bill that is against their people. This allegation of bribery must stop. How can you bribe the whole House? No one was bribed. Don’t tarnish the name of my members. What is your purpose, to make the public hate Parliament?” Among complained.

Finance Minister Matia Kasaija and State Minister for Public Mary Mugasha when contacted said the Cabinet is yet to meet and discuss Parliament’s decision on the process.

“Cabinet has not met to discuss the decisions of Parliament. We will not clash with Parliament. We will adjust accordingly and see how we harmonize the decisions of Parliament and Cabinet,” Kasaija said.