If I start accepting unclear money, I will not have the moral authority to stop people from taking money wrongly,” Hussein Kyanjo the Makindye West MP explained why he returned Shs20million the government gave to every MP to purportedly ‘monitor government programmes.’
Officials from the ruling NRM had said MPs who rejected the Shs20m should be voted out for abandoning their responsibility. Presidential Advisor on Media and Public Relations John Nagenda said such legislators should have used the money to buy tractors for their constituents to save them from using hand hoes.
However, the tables could now be turning against the MPs who pocketed the money. They face a constitutional indictment for receiving a dubious emolument.
Several NGOs under the NGO Forum umbrella are suing the MPs in the Constitutional Court for accepting the Shs20m. The NGOs contend that the MPs’ action offends Article 85 of the constitution which requires members of parliament to approve any kind of remuneration or allowances before taking it.
Article 85 (1) states: “A member of Parliament shall be paid such emoluments and such gratuity and shall be provided with such facilities as may be determined by Parliament.”
Godber Tumushabe, the Executive Director of Advocates Coalition for Development (ACODE), says the NGOs have launched a ‘Return Our Money” campaign to force the MPs to refund the money they improperly received from the national treasury.
He says the “Return Our Money” is multi-strategy campaign which includes petitioning court, placing advertisements, distributing flyers and sending messages to voters who will forward the SMS to their MPs to force them to refund the money to the treasury.
However, he lamented that sending messages had hit a snag as SMS media companies were uncooperative for fear the move would hurt their businesses.
Tumushabe avers that by accepting the Shs6.5 billion and distributing it to MPs the Parliamentary Commission, Speaker of Parliament Edward Ssekandi and the MPs, who did not return the money, participated in an activity that might compromise their work of oversight.
“It is a moral and legal issue we intend to take to the voters,” Tumushabe said. He said the suit would be filed within a week from February 10.
He holds that Article 85 was put in place to ensure that MPs who are trustees of the national treasury (Consolidated Fund) are never compromised in their official work. He says that receiving the Shs20m will cause what the constitution intended to prevent.
He also averred that the Parliamentary Commission should not have remitted the money to MPs’ accounts without establishing its source, purpose or whether the payment was lawful.
ACODE is the lead NGO in pursuing the legal option in the Constitutional Court. Other NGOs will handle the other aspects of the Return Our Money campaign such as adverts and mass messages to voters.
Tumushabe says the NGOs were also considering adding the Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Uganda Revenue Authority and the Attorney General on the indictment. He says that under article 164 of the constitution, Secretary to the Treasury can be personally liable for loss of public funds.
The Parliament spokesperson Helen Kaweesa denied liability. She said Parliament should not be blamed for paying out the money it received from the Ministry of Finance. She argued that when parliament received the money, they assumed it had been passed through proper channels.
“Are we expected to ask them (finance ministry) where they got the money from?” she asked.
She said 13 MPs had returned the money by February 10. They are: Kitgum District Woman MP Beatrice Anywar, Bukedea MP Oduman Okello, Kampala District Woman MP Nabillah Sempala, Makindye West MP Hussein Kyanjo, Kyaddondo East MP Sam Njuba, Kampala Central MP Erias Lukwago, Mukono North MP Betty Nambooze, Soroti District Woman MP Alice Alaso, Lubaga South MP Susan Nampijja and Mbale Municipality MP Jack Wamai Wamanga.
Others are: Kawempe North MP Sebuliba Mutumba, Kawempe South MP Latif Ssebaggala and Lubaga North MP Beti Kamya.
“All MPs might in the end have to return the money but they have said they already used the money,” Kaweesa said.
She told The Independent that the MPs claimed they had used the money to monitor government programmes, but they could not give accountability since there are no guidelines.
“It is a sticky situation,” she concluded.
Probably for fear the scandal may hurt the NRM and President Museveni’s popularity especially at such election time, police and Resident District Commissioners have intervened to stop the Return Our Money campaign.
According to Arthur Larok, the NGO Forum Executive Director, 14 of their workers were arrested in Kampala on Feb. 5 while police and RDCs in Masindi and Lira district have harassed journalists and civil society organisation workers whom they suspect of engaging in the Return Our Money advocacy.
Ugandans appear to be resorting to courts as other institutions of government which are meant to check abuse of public resources have been compromised or intimidated into submission.
Seventy MPs have been kicked out of parliament by court for crossing from one party to another in contravention of the constitution.
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