DO WE NEED THE PARLIAMENT WHEN THE NRM CAUCUS ENDORSES THINGS AT STATEHOUSE

Trust dictatotors, now President Museveni given the majority he has of the NRM in Parliament, he has turned the Parliament into a useless organ. he summons them to State House and he convinces themof the line he is interested in, and the following day, the Parliament just approves his line! That is how low Uganda has sunk. Why then does the tax payer have to waste billions on this useless lot? While they are there, the country is sinking on! In fact I tend to imagine that what we are witnessing in Uganda today is the return from God for endorsing clearly corrupt people and from whom we accept favours otherwise how would Ugandans turn against Museveni before he even swears in, yet he got over 60%!
William Kituuka Kiwanuka

NRM CAUCUS APPROVES JET PURCHASE
Thursday, 7th April, 2011
By Madinah Tebajjukira
and Milton Olupot
THE National Resistance Movement caucus has endorsed plans by the Government to purchase new fighter jets and tanks.
The Government chief whip, Daudi Migereko, yesterday said the caucus meeting held on Tuesday at State House Entebbe, agreed to approve $740m (about 1.7 trillion) to purchase the jets in order to improve the country’s security.
The defence ministry has so far paid $446m (about sh1trillion) to an unidentified supplier. The jets and tanks are likely to be purchased from Russia.
The money was borrowed from the Central Bank dollar reserves.
“In 2009, the Government entered into a contract for the supply of military equipment for the purpose of strengthening the security. This was in response to the security threats against Uganda,” Migereko said.
“Uganda has been using old weaponry. Purchasing the new jets is not only a strategy to guarantee our security but also professionalise the army by replacing manpower with modern equipment,” he added.
Migereko said part of the expenditure to purchase the equipment was defrayed in the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 financial years and that the expenditure was financed through a drawdown of government savings in Bank of Uganda.
He said the NRM parliamentary committee set up a committee of ministers to study the technical aspects of the purchase and advise on the way forward.

NRM CAUCUS MEETING IGNORES BUGANDA
Written by Edris Kiggundu
Wednesday, 04 November 2009 22:12
This week’s NRM MPs Caucus meeting at State House, Entebbe, was most notable for President Museveni’s lecture to the legislators on stimulating development, as well as its curious quietness on Buganda. A source that attended the meeting said President Museveni spent some time lecturing to a group of legislators who hardly posed any challenging questions.
The tone had been set earlier on when Museveni, like a headmaster, implored the MPs to sit down after standing up to acknowledge his entry into the conference hall. It became apparent at this stage that even the Chair of the meeting, Chief Whip, Daudi Migereko, who introduced Museveni as a “guest speaker”, would not hog the limelight.
Many things about the meeting did not seem right. First, there was an abrupt change of venue from Parliament to State House, which caught some MPs unawares. In fact, some did not make it. Secondly, the agenda of the meeting was only communicated to them on reaching Entebbe; no wonder some could hardly make any contribution.
Museveni’s speech mainly centred on what the MPs must do to stimulate development in their constituencies. He castigated MPs who spend much time presiding over fundraising activities in schools and health centres, saying this was a core function of the local and central governments.
“Today he [MP] is here, tomorrow he is there. Doing what?” our sources quote Museveni as having asked.
He told the MPs that there were similar fundraising drives in Kenya called Harambee, which financially stretched politicians, many of whom got bankrupted.
Museveni said the MPs should instead work with government to promote programmes such as NAADS and Bonna Baggagawale (Prosperity for All), and spare their little resources for other things. In fact, he said he had directed the Attorney General to come up with a Bill that seeks to disengage fundraising activities from politics.
According to our sources, most MPs cheered the move because as legislators they have struggled to meet the financial expectations of their constituents. Others feared that their non-involvement in fundraising activities would instead alienate them from their voters. Museveni then addressed the recent study sanctioned by the NRM, which exposed among other things the existence of ghosts on the national voters’ register.
He said he is the one who commissioned the research whose brief was to study the national register and then develop a party register for the NRM. He labelled the hullabaloo created by the revelation of the findings as unwarranted, although he later said he would follow up the matter.
In the same meeting, he reiterated his commitment to fight corruption and gave the suspension of Mary Nnanono, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, as an example of his new resolve.
“This woman tried to fight some of our programmes in the ministry,” Museveni is quoted as having said, before adding that government would move fast to weed out people with a lot of lugezigezi (wiseacracy) from the system.
He said special units will be formed in all ministries and their role will be to detect and report mismanagement. When it was time for debate, several MPs were quick to remind Museveni about unfulfilled pledges and promises. Museveni announced that he had set up a committee headed by the Prime Minister, Apolo Nsibambi, to look into their concerns. The committee also has ministers: Daudi Migereko, Hope Mwesigye (Agriculture), Hillary Onek (Energy), Syda Bbumba (Finance), and John Nasasira (Works). The Entebbe meeting was, however, notable for what it did not dwell on.
While there were no assurances that the bad blood between Buganda and the central government would be discussed, some MPs hoped it would still feature, but it never did.

ekiggundu@observer.ug