Marvin Twiinawe is a student of Journalism, media, and communication at Uganda Christain University (PHOTO/Courtesy)
The Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, called for an audit into the
performance of Parliament’s Committee on State Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase).
For starters, The Joel Ssenyonyi-led Cosase has raised “dust” that
hasn’t been wiped yet. Why blame the winds instead of tackling the origin of the dust?
Some of the critical reports that were probed haven’t yet been
discussed in the August house and the perpetrators are still at liberty.
Cosase kicked off sessions of hearings into the operations of Uganda Airlines in July last year following concerns
raised by the Auditor General. The committee wrapped up its probe in September but Parliament was sent on a month-long recess before it could present its report.
The leaking of the report before it could be tabled before the House prompted the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, to put at the task the Leader of Opposition, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, to provide a report of circumstances of how the Cosase probe report leaked to the media.
Instead of having the report included on the order paper for discussion in the parliament, the Speaker opted for rather ”playing delaying tactics”.
The dirty findings of the report which shocked Ugandans had the
Airlines ‘ CEO Ms Jenifer Bamuturaki trending on social media for days.
The Auditor General put Uganda Airlines’ loss in Fy 2021/22 at around Shs232 billion while Cosase said it was almost twice as much, around Shs500b.
“Mr Ssenyonyi accused the Speaker of playing delaying tactics by not considering the report over unclear reasons”.
“He also questioned the motive of the speaker to meet with some of the airline’s officials, especially its chief executive officer, Ms Jenifer
Bamuturaki who he said had been pinned by the findings of his probe.”
While the current speaker was the Vice-chairperson of COSASE in the 10th parliament, she handled one BOU report for 5months and Speaker Kadaga extended her term to finish it.
The Joel Ssenyonyi-led Cosase handled 5 entities in one year that
included the Uganda Railways Corporation, Uganda Land Commission, Uganda Airlines, Uganda Civil Aviation Authority.
The most recent one is the UNRA report in which over shs 124 Billion was “diverted from the budgeted projects to other projects leading to discharge “.
The “saints” are playing their role and now seem to be pursued by the “hunted “.
Whether there are irregularities in the committee, let’s focus on
taking action on findings and recommendations of the previous reports before we can ”hunt the hunter”
Let’s not let the airline mess go without debate, it is a shame!
Cosase is among the few entities that still have the trust of Ugandan
citizens, we can deal with their so-called ”poor performance” after
taking action on the little they have done.
It should be noted that Ms. Bamuturaki was appointed on the “orders “of the president in July last year so the House’s leadership may be acting in defence of the “Big fish”.
Nevertheless, parliament’s failure to discuss such consequential issues will continue to test its ability to stand up to the Executive.
The racket of thieves will continue to rob our cash-strapped country and still stay at liberty.
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