Africa-Press – Uganda. Parliament last evening reacted furiously to a claim by an Opposition leader that MPs will each swallow a Shs100 million bribe for passing government’s under-fire additional Shs3.5 trillion budget.
“To impute that MPs passed it (the Shs3.5 trillion supplementary budget) because there is Shs100 million for each of them is to disrespect MPs unnecessarily. The Parliament should not be tainted at the altar of toxic and unproductive political games,” Mr Chris Obore, the House director for communication and public affairs, told journalists in Kampala yesterday.
Stop bribing MPs, Kadaga tells Cabinet
Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, the leader of Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP), is already in the eye of the storm for, among others, telling the UK-based BBC that some of his colleagues in the Opposition are in cahoots with the government.
Yesterday, he stoked the embers when he told journalists in Kampala that the government quietly stuffed over Shs50b into the recently passed Shs3.5 trillion supplementary budget. He claimed the money was a sweetener for MPs.
Mr Kyagulanyi said the government will now spend taxpayers’ money on “laughable” things like supervision of the long-stalled Lubowa hospital – a project which has itself swallowed billions of shillings without getting off the ground.
“It is challenging that out of the Shs3.5 trillion supplementary budget, Shs418b is going to Museveni’s house. However, on top of the Shs3.5 trillion, there was an addendum of Shs55b, and out of this addendum each MP is going to receive a bribe of Shs100m to pass that supplementary,” he said.
“I want to warn our Members of Parliament that we know about this and we have broken the news to the public. I will not defend or protect anybody that gets involved in this grand theft,” he added.
However, when asked to produce evidence for the allegations, Mr Kyagulanyi said “the details will be available but you are journalists, you can as well go find out, given that now we have broken the news.”
It is these as-yet unsubstantiated claims which got Mr Obore going yesterday.
“This is not the first time the government is presenting a supplementary budget request to Parliament,” Mr Obore said, pointing out that, “in that supplementary request, the budget of the Parliamentary Commission was not enhanced despite the shortfalls, so how will MPs get the Shs100m each!”
Mr Obore also demanded that Mr Kyagulanyi present evidence to back up his claims, and asked whether when, as MP, he also pocketed bribes before passing national budgets.
“Honourable Kyagulanyi was MP [for Kyadondo East] and supplementary budgets were brought to the House and passed. I don’t remember him or any MP being paid for passing the supplementary then. MPs need to be accorded some respect as individuals trusted by their constituents,” Mr Obore said
For his part, Mr Muwanga Kivumbi, who is the Shadow Minister for Finance and Butambala legislator, told this publication that the alleged smuggled money was stuffed under the classified State House portion of the Shs3.5 trillion budget supplementary.
“The Shs40m Museveni ‘handshake’ that was given to each MP in the last financial year was from the State House budget, even this time round we have credible information that the government is planning to use part of the same budget to bribe each MP with Shs100m,” he said yesterday. However, Mr Kivumbi did not also provide any proof for his allegations.
Last year, a storm broke out in political circles when claims swept through the House corridors that MPs had irregularly received an unexplained Shs40 million.
At the time, Mr Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, ordered NUP legislators to return the funds. The matter was never fully resolved with the Parliamentary administration stoutly denying that any such money had been quietly slipped to MPs.
Meanwhile, Mr Kyagulanyi also said yesterday that his remarks about homosexuals during the BBC interview were misinterpreted.
“My words were quoted out of context during that BBC interview in London. When I communicated that people grow and transform, I meant that as a leader I transformed from calling for the death and killing of people that differ from me, but regime propagandists have tried as much as possible to twist my words,” he said.
“But again, I still stand by my words. Secondly, this issue has been turned from being a moral issue to a political issue. The gay issue is being used by Mr Museveni’s regime as a political weapon against opponents,” he added.
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