By Mulengera Reporters
Saying he is a very busy man, Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa on Wednesday directed MPs to stop the habit of frequently or unnecessarily summoning and molesting the state finance Minister Henry Musasizi requiring him to personally appear before each and every sectoral committee of Parliament as legislators carry on with the processing of ministerial policy statements and preparation for the next FY2025/2026 budget.
Tayebwa said the finance minister, a role the versatile Musasizi has effectively assumed taking advantage of his senior boss Matia Kasaija’s old age and frail health, is naturally a very busy person who practically can’t manage appearing before each and every committee of parliament. That for the ongoing budgeting process, the finance minister should directly engage and interact with only the budget committee whose membership comprises of all the sectoral committee chairpersons.
The deputy speaker said that in fact there is clear need to amend the PFMA so that this idea of accounting officers, ministers and entities being required to make duplicative appearances comes to an end once and for all. He said the AG will soon be coming through with those amendments so as to relieve such officials from having to make multiple appearances before committees which end up inquiring into the same things on different days. He asserted that this amendment process will be good for accounting officers and the sectoral committee leaders and members too as they will be able to respectively concentrate on what is core.
To illustrate his point, Tayebwa recalled a recent incident he had to be personally involved in when KCCA officials got confused and petitioned his office. The KCCA team plus their line ministers had been required to on the same day appear before four committees of parliament namely their committee of Presidential Affairs, the one of physical infrastructure because they handle roads, the one of health because they manage hospitals and the education one because they manage public schools in Kampala.
Two MPs protested and perceived the speaker as trying to unduly shield the finance minister. These were Kasanda North’s Patrick Oshabe Nsamba and Kazo’s Dan Kimosho. Nsamba said the ministry has a good number of ministers who should be able to distribute themselves into different committees. Kimosho asserted that sometimes it’s inevitable to summon the finance minister and asserted that the committee chairpersons weren’t asking for too much except that the current leadership at the finance ministry is scattered and not adequately organized. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
