Africa-Press – Uganda. Members of the Parliamentary Covid-19 taskforce have defended their failure to deliver on their mandate in time and also explained the bottlenecks encountered in the course of executing their duties.
The tasksforce, which was constituted a month ago, is tasked to examine the effects of the second wave of the coronavirus disease.
The team constituted by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, and chaired by the Bugweri County lawmaker, Mr Abdu Katuntu, was supposed to have submitted a report to the House last Thursday.
Ms Among directed the Katuntu-led team to presentation the findings to the House tomorrow.
Bugweri County lawmaker Abdu Katuntu is chairperson of the Parliamentary Covid-19 taskforce. PHOTO/FILE
Some members of the taskforce, who preferred to remain anonymous, reasoned that they had a heavier workload than they anticipated.
They also revealed that they unearthed matters beyond containment of Covid-19 because majority of the challenges at the district health centres and the regional offices had existed for years.
Ms Fortunate Rose Nantongo, the Kyotera Woman MP, and also a member of the taskforce, said: “The reason as to why we did not submit the report last Thursday is because we needed more time.’’
Other MPs react
Mr Isaac Modoi, the Lutseshe County lawmaker, said the committee needs time to conclusively aggregate the findings. “We cannot say they have failed because they have not yet finished their work. They have not met the key stakeholders to get their input on the findings.
“Of course there is an element of frustration because people want to know what happened, especially on the money that was distributed,” Mr Modoi said.
However, Mr Hassan Kirumira, the Katimu South MP, was disappointed by the commitee.“I personally got a shock of myself life to find out that they have not submitted the report. And now the 42 days are over. This is appalling for our leadership and detrimental for our people…”
Mr Paul Nsubuga, the Busiro North MP, insisted that MPs will have to scrutinise the report findings.
“When the taskforce was delegated, we expected a report as soon as possible. We shall focus on getting accountability of what they went to do. It must match the expectations members had in them (commitee),” he said.
According to Ms Among, the committee represents Parliament at the national taskforce and also coordinates the overall interventions of the regional parliamentary taskforce teams.
