Africa-Press – Uganda. The Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party is in a deadlock with the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, over the move by the former to replace the party whip, Mr Ibrahim Semujju Nganda, with Mr Yusuf Nsibambi, the Mawokota South Member of Parliament.
On August 7, the party secretary general, Mr Nathan Nandala Mafabi, wrote to the Speaker of Parliament Anita Among, notifying her that the party had removed Mr Semujju, the Kira Municipality MP, as the party whip in Parliament and appointed Mr Nsibambi to replace him.
However, a week later, Ms Among replied, rejecting the changes. She stated that she had received a petition from a section of FDC MPs, who opposed the move. The petitioners claimed that Mr Nandala acted without consulting the relevant party organs, including the MPs representing the party.
Previously, Speaker Among rejected the removal of Mr Ojara Mapenduzi after his party, the National Unity Platform, sacked him from the chairperson of PAC Local Government seat.
This came after Mapenduzi authored a motion that ejected Mr Francis Zaake from Parliamentary Commission. These two decisions have put Ms Among under the spotlight over what many have termed as dictating on how the opposition parties run their affairs in Parliament.
Both Administration of Parliament Act and the parliamentary Rules of Procedure vest the powers to appoint party whips in the hands of the respective parties. However, the rule doesn’t specify whether it is the secretary general, or party president or a meeting of the party organs that constitute to elect a person to be appointed the Opposition party whip.
Section 15(7) of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament states that a party in Opposition may appoint its party whip.
The rule goes ahead to offer specific functions of the party whip, which among others, include to ensure due attendance, participation in proceedings and voting in Parliament of members of a particular party.
The rule adds that the party whip shall also perform such other functions as provided under sub rule (10) of this rule.
Other functions of the government chief whip, opposition chief whip and party whip, according to the rules of the procedure shall include organising party business, keeping members informed of parliamentary business, supplying lists of members to serve on standing and sectoral committees, co-operating with whips in putting into effect and coordinating agreed parliamentary business, acting as intermediaries between leaders and other party members, arranging representations of party members on official parliamentary delegations and acting as tellers during divisions.
In performing the above mentioned duties, the party whips are facilitated by the Parliament to carry out their duties.
While such facilitations are not contained in the rules of procedure, section 20 of the Administration of Parliament Act states that the administrative and operational expenses of Parliament, including all salaries, allowances, gratuities and pensions payable to or in respect of a person serving in Parliament, shall be charged on the Consolidated Fund.
While this particular clause applies to the people employed in the parliamentary services, excluding the political leaders, offices of party whips generously benefit from the facilitation.
Accordingly, the party whips, who are given office space in Parliament, are fully facilitated to perform their functions.
Available information also indicates that each party whip is given Shs2m per month for airtime to run the office and two staff whom he or she employs himself but are paid by Parliamentary Commission.
They are also facilitated for travel abroad and within, or recommend members of their party for such travels. While abroad, each member is paid $720 (about Shs2.7m) per night while local travels attract facilitation of Shs400,000 per night.
In addition, they are accorded 15 days allowance per month for inland travel and have unspecified office imprest to run the daily operations. They are also given fuel cards worth Shs5m and a fully chauffeured government car, in addition to car allowances extended to all legislators.
It is over these perks that Mr Nandala, weeks ago, hit out at Semujju and accused him of being selfish. He particularly took issues with the foreign trips, which he said Mr Semujju has grabbed and refused to recommend other party members.
“I have now discovered why people never voted him (Semujju) in Parliament as Speaker. People have now discovered that [Mr] Semujju is a very selfish person. All the trips outside this country for Opposition FDC, he is the one who takes them and even goes extra. So if you want to know people who are eating Museveni money, let [Mr] Semujju Show us how many times he has travelled out of this country and how much he has been paid for the travels,” Mr Nandala said.
It should be noted that each party represented in Parliament appoints a whip who also enjoys the same benefits. We were, however, unable to get clarifications from Justice Forum, which only has one MP, on whether the lone member performs all the functions of the whip and gets all the facilitation.
But Ms Betty Aol Ochan, the former Leader of Opposition in Parliament and the Gulu City Woman MP, yesterday said while all these perks are enticing, there was no need to hurriedly sack Mr Semujju.
She said the party whips play very important roles in ensuring discipline among their party members, especially to attend parliamentary proceedings and that it is natural that they are facilitated to do their work.
Ms Aol, however, took issues with the way the FDC party whip was replaced because of the internal part disagreements.
“There was no need to hurriedly replace our party whip, if we are to uphold the internal cohesion. If Semujju had resigned, that would be a different case, but he has not. Even if we have disagreements in the party, we could use other avenues to resolve them instead of rushing to replace him,” Ms Aol said.
Benefits
They are also facilitated for travel abroad and within, or recommend members of their party for such travels. While abroad, each member is paid $720 (about Shs2.7m) per night while local travels attract facilitation of Shs400,000 per night.
They are also accorded 15 days allowance per month for inland travel and have unspecified office imprest to run the daily operations.
They are given fuel cards worth Shs5m and a fully chauffeured government car, in addition to car allowances extended to all legislators.
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