{UAH} Foreign travels are not bad, it is MPs who are - Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda

Let me confess my sin and sell for forgiveness right from the start. 

I am one of the MPs who travelled on taxpayers' money to the USA to attend this year's annual Ugandan North American Association (UNAA) conferences. The association broke into two about three years ago. One group that retained the name UNAA held their conference in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the one attended by the speaker of parliament, her deputy, tens of MPs and staff.

UNAA Causes, the name the second group uses, held theirs in Los Angeles, California. This is the one yours truly, lord mayor Erias Lukwago and leader of the opposition Winnie Kiiza attended.

Over 200 Ugandans attended the Los Angeles festival which was spiced by a fairly-organized dinner, a boat cruise and a live music show. Isaiah Katumwa, a Ugandan jazz icon, sang at the dinner while Tanzanian singer Diamond Platnumz led the music show. David Lutalo, Naira Ali and Zanie Brown also sang.

Beauty queens from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia, dressed by Paris-based Ugandan designer Stella Atal, also graced the dinner. The only time Winnie Kiiza and Lukwago were given an opportunity to talk politics was at the dinner and to launch a UNAA Causes safe water project that will be based in Kampala.

Because many Ugandans live and work in these developed countries, I think we have lost an opportunity as a country to maximally exploit their presence.

While it is important to track all citizens, listen and speak to them, it is possible to use them to arrange foreign audiences that are necessary for our tourism. Flying from Uganda to speak only to a purely Ugandan audience is self-defeating.

Remember tourism is now our major foreign exchange earner. It overtook coffee and remittances from Ugandans living abroad. Instead of sponsoring many MPs and State House operatives to these conferences, we can benefit more from flying in skilled, private and public tour operators, including hiring expatriates in these host countries.

In the place of people carrying nsenene and kabalagala for their relatives abroad, we can take a selected number of high-profile people, including some polished MPs, loaded with well-prepared literature and videos on the country's tourism and trade potential.

I have looked at the budget figures again. We, as a country, annually spend more than Shs 100 billion on travels abroad and I can understand why the public is angry with us, MPs, for "eating" Shs 2 billion in six days on UNAA.

I think those who are responsible for preparing and approving the budget have learnt tricks of awarding themselves big sums of money and starving critical sectors of the economy. And as I said earlier, I am collectively guilty on this one because I sit in that parliament.

Foreign trips, if well utilized, can be good for diplomacy, trade and tourism. Unfortunately, those responsible for these three things are less facilitated. Look at the ministry of finance, for example.

This financial year, they have allocated themselves Shs 6.1 billion for workshops and seminars, Shs 10.3 billion for staff training, Shs 10 billion for short-term consultancy, Shs 6.4 billion for long-term consultancy, Shs 4.4 billion for fuel, Shs 3.5 billion for vehicle maintenance and Shs 4.6 billion for travels inland.

Travel abroad, like workshops, has become a permanent item to be funded by taxpayers in every budget. Every government department has money for travels abroad.

And because it is not properly guided, 30 MPs will fly to UNAA to attend beach parties and dinners instead of visiting congress and state parliaments to learn how things are done. That is where the problem is. It is not the travels that are bad; it is the Ugandan travelling lot!

http://www.observer.ug/viewpoint/46290-foreign-travels-are-not-bad-it-is-mps-who-are

Sincerely,

Brian M. Kwesiga