Members of parliament have called for the amendment of the parliamentary rules of procedure with a view of making vetting of ministerial nominees public.

Rebecca Kadaga

According to the MPs, this process should not be closed to MPs since they all defend government officials like ministers in their constituencies even without having participated in their vetting.

Currently, the ministers are vetted by only the appointments committee chaired by the speaker and that its decision is final, not subject for whole parliament debate like other parliament committees but the decision is binding to all MPs.

The MPs who included among others Abdu Katuntu (FDC) and Alex Rukunda (NRM) wondered why appointments’ procedures are held under closed doors without allowing even elected MPs to witness them and therefore asked for revision of the rules to make them open to all MPs.

The MPs also told the speaker that they are currently broke and need payment as soon as possible. Speaker Rebecca Kadaga assured them that their concerns would be addressed soon.

By Isaac Senabulya