{UAH} THE SAD REALITY!

THE SAD REALITY!

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Category: politics Opinion

Published on 12 November 2013

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Casual Research indicates that Over 65% of Ugandan MPs are Career Politicians Who Haven't had any Other Job other than being in Parliament 

By Fred Daka Kamwada

Last week the Ugandan Members of Parliament received iPads to help them in their legislation business.  With each gadget valued at 1,097 Dollars, the devices will reportedly cost the tax payers over a billion Ugandan shillings. It was reported that the MPs will get the latest version of iPads as a way of reducing the cost of stationery and embracing e-governance. 

The decision to buy iPads was taken by the Parliamentary Commission, whose senior commissioners said will be got from the Parliament's budget for stationery. Hon Dombo also said that they can, for example use them to carry out quick research during plenary sessions in order to make meaningful contributions to debates.

Compelling Logic

 All these are very noble justifications for the expensive gadgets.  However, what we as Ugandans are questioning is the burden of cost. Why was the burden not transferred to the end user (the MPs) who is the sole beneficiary?

Even if it was cutting down on the cost of stationery, as is the argument, can we assume that they will not use any more stationery in the August House? Because that would be double cost for the tax payer.

Parliament Commissioner Hon Dombo also said the iPads "will be personal to the holder and will be the property of individual MPs as a form of facilitation". But why then does government pay for a gadget that is personal property of the individual MP?

Exaggeration of Costs

Even the cost of the iPads itself is a little bit inflated.  iPads go for between 195 to 500 dollars in the official market.  This means that the costs have been hugely exaggerated.

Burden of  Cost

Any patriotic Ugandan citizen will tell you that the gadgets should have been bought by the legislators using their personal cash. Why then did government make a decision to use tax payers' money to purchase the iPad for the MPs?

It's a shame given the fact that Ugandans are already complaining about the per diem of the MPS which shoots to almost to Shs25m.

 Shs 130m Cars

The iPad scam comes at a time when the car scandal has not sunk in the minds of the gullible Ugandans.

A few years ago, the Ugandan government made a decision to give each MP a car worth Shs130m amidst outcries from the Ugandan public.  

The whole country rose up in arms to protest the astronomical amounts of money that would cost the tax payers to cater for their transport. It's true that the MPs needed the cars (of the 4+4 series) just like they need the IPads to ease their legislation business and e-governance.

However, when you apply the principle of cost-benefit analysis, you will find that the MPs remains the sole beneficiaries of the whole business rather than their constituency.

Unjustified C.O.P

But the principle defeats logic when you add an extra cost to the tax payer at a time when the cost of public expenditure (C.O.P) has hit soaring heights.  It's more compelling that we should be talking about reducing the cost of public expenditure at all costs.

In Kenya, the general public reacted to the horrendous amounts of salaries paid to MPs by deploying pigs to demonstrate at the doors steps of parliament. The Kenyan MPs were toying with the idea of raising their salaries which would have in effect made them the highest paid legislators in the world.

The 'demonstrator pigs', stopped the Kenyan MPs from their selfish intentions. The Ugandan MPs are lucky that their citizens' don't normally use extra measures (including the deployment of pigs) to express their disgust and displeasure.

Gullible Ugandans

Ugandans are known to use radio talk shows and writing articles like this to express their displeasures about governance issues. But we can propagate a way out of this extravagance. Nevertheless, we should find a way of excluding careerist politicians from top political positions.

The Casual Research

We carried out a casual research by checking the profiles of the Ugandan MPs and found out that very few MPs have had careers before joining parliament. The research shows that most of the Ugandan MPs have got no CV and have never worked anywhere else apart from parliament.

 A casual research also shows that over 65% % of Ugandan MPs currently have no other job other than being Members of Parliament.  Out of 378 MPS only 129 had noteworthy careers before they joined parliament.

Way Forward

A person aspiring to join the Ugandan Parliament must have some strong initiatives ( in form of big investments or something tangible) on the ground that he has undertaken to justify his credentials as an ambitious MP.  This is to prove that he is not seeking for employment in parliament as a careerist politician but aspires to serve his country.

Alternatively or additionally, we should compel aspiring MPs to first show their bank accounts to verify their financial status.  You will be surprised to learn that many of the Ugandan MPs had no bank accounts prior to their time in the August House.

The per diem and emoluments paid to the MPs must considerably be slashed to tone down the cost of running the August House. This is in line with what long serving NRM Vice Chairman Hajji Moses Kigongo once suggested that the amount paid to MPs must be slashed considerably so that we can have people to serve rather than survive in parliament.

Cars bought for MPs must be considered to belong to the constituency, rather than belong to the individual MP.

The momentum to reduce on the cost of public expenditure must start with the auditing of legislature, and the executive to reduce on the horrendous wastage. The executive has master minded a lot of wastage with hundreds of Presidential Advisors, Resident District Commissioners and endless supplementary budgets for State House.

Conclusion

Because of the history, Uganda runs an expensive democracy at the cost of the tax player but by doing so, the country risks a continuous wastage of resources.

We should design laws that arrest such  wastage among other things, discouraging careerist politicians from contesting for senior leadership positions. Politics should be perceived as a sacrifice rather than a career for profiteering and stop the culture of milking the state.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower