Parliament should not have allocated itself UGX 10 billion COVID-19 rescue money, the president has said.
While addressing the nation on Tuesday evening, President Yoweri Museveni said he had advised the Speaker of parliament against it, but she acted otherwise.
He added that those who have not returned the money, should donate it to their respective district task force to buy food relief. He also warns that the Auditor General will be required to investigate how each MP uses the UGX 20m allocated to them.
“That 20 million is bad planning. But also, there are also legal and constitutional issues involved which I don’t want to go into. I have been discussing with the speaker, it would be morally reprehensible for members of parliament to give themselves money for personal use when the country is in such a crisis” the President noted.
He added that the move is unacceptable to him and the National Resistance Movement. The president told Ugandans that he met the Speaker and warned that Parliament had trapped itself and should get out and that the only way out was not to allocate themselves money for personal use.
“I agreed with the speaker, take that money and donate it to the district taskforce where you come from. Go and give it to the CAO and this will limit the damage people will know that you didn’t take the money for yourselves. I heard that some of the MPs went and bought things, that’s not good enough, because you are not a purchasing officer of the state” Museveni noted.
He told the MPs that the constitution of Uganda provides for people he termed as ‘purchasers/people who buy things’ explaining that even after 34 years of living in State House, he has never bought a toilet roll as that is the job of some other person.
“I know many Ugandans are angry with this, but I appeal to you don’t be angry, this will be sorted out. Because I told the Rt. Hon. Speaker how to handle this. So, for those who took the money and gave it to the district task force, the issue there is simply the one of bad planning but we can explain to our Ugandans. Now, the ones who bought on their own the question is who authorized you to buy for the state? This is public money. I think here the Auditor General will have to come in and audit to say you bought badly or well, so we can clear this” the President warned.
Mr. Museveni urged Ugandans not to lose hope, thinking that their MPs have already spent the money, as those that did will be asked to pay it back using their salaries.
