I don’t know how many cars were procured for Commonwealth Conference- Kadaga

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has said that she does not know the exact number of vehicles that were procured for the 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference.

Kadaga was on Thursday responding to questions raised by journalists and members of the public in a tweet chat about the recently concluded conference.

Asked about the number of vehicles procured and what plans they have for the vehicles since the conference ended, Kadaga said that she is waiting for a report from the Clerk to Parliament Jane Kibirige.

She, however, said that the cars will not only become part of the Parliament fleet but also part of the national official motor vehicles which can be used for different activities.

On how big parliament’s old fleet has been, Kadaga still maintained that she did not have the figure.

However, URN has learnt that parliament procured 100 vehicles for the conference, which attracted more than 1,200 delegates from different countries under the Commonwealth.

The cars which were used to transport delegates to and from the Airport, to their hotels and to different tourist destinations in the country were supplied by Spear Motors, Kampala Motors Limited and Toyota Uganda Limited.

The vehicles included 6 executive commuter vans, 8 high roof commuter vans, 17 station wagons, 15 minibuses, 3 executive passage vans, 14 Isuzu double cabins, 21 Nissan double cabins, 6 Fortuner station wagons, 4 luxury coaches, 1 executive ambulance, 4 lead cars and 1 back-up car.

Earlier media reports indicated a conflicting budget spent by Parliament on the purchase of the new vehicles with some reporting 18 billion shillings while others report 37 billion Shillings.

Besides the 100 new vehicles, parliament also hired 50 other station wagons from Mercantile Car Rentals Limited to also transport the delegates at 650,000 Shillings for each vehicle.

Speaker Kadaga declined to give a figure of how much the country spent to organize the conference.

Asked about whether there was value for money spent, the Speaker said that the Auditor General through his audits would be able to establish.

The 64th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference was held under the theme “Adaption, Engagement and Evolution of Parliaments in a rapidly changing Commonwealth.”

This was Uganda’s second time to host the Conference since 1967.

****

URN