The speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has started the process of name and shame of Members of Parliament who dodge the committee sittings.
This as she issued a whipping warning letter that states that the next session will attract disciplinary proceedings against any Member of Parliament who will absent themselves from committee work.
Kadaga’s letter was based on a performance report of the committees and individual Members of Parliament, adding that those dodging the committee work violate rules 111(7) and 112(2) of the Rules of Procedure.
A source who did not want to make his name public said that this report is implicating most of the MPs of low attendance of the committee work.
The speaker noted that as a result, most of the work in plenary comes from Committees, and failure by a Committee to effectively handle business before, it adversely affects the performance of Parliament in general.
However the chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament who is also Soroti District Woman MP Angeline Assege said that the speaker has only pointed out those who don’t come to Committees, questioning about those who don’t attend plenary.
Assege said that the speaker has not done anything about MPs dodging plenary proceedings to the extent that some miss house for 15 sittings and she doesn’t do anything.
She said that there should have been a certain level of discipline instilled in MPs to know that they are being paid to do work for this country. She reminded MPs that each one of them represents people that nobody else represents.
The member of parliament for Bugabula South Henry Maurice Kibalya said that there is need to make the names of Members of Parliament who absent themselves from the committee public so that the voters can know which MPs are carrying out their representation roles and said that even the problem of social media tax is because some MPs were not around.
Workers members of parliament Dr. Sam Lyomoki said that that even though the system is good but they should not look at attendance only but also emphasize the quality of debate in Parliament.
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