MPs CANNOT FAIL TO RAISE SHS 150M TO INVESTIGATE OIL BRIBES

It may be true that Government can frustrate the efforts of MPs to investigate those in Government alleged to have received Oil money bribes. However, the MPs cannot fail to call a donors conference to raise the shs 150m million or more money they need to do the work. We have learnt that some Permanent Secretaries want to lock up do to failure to get funding, may be the brokeness is real, either way, resorting to donors is the way out. William Kituuka Kiwanuka PARLIAMENT'S OIL BRIBERY PROBE TEAM PENNILESS By Isaac Imaka Posted Monday, April 23 2012 at 00:00 After surviving a High Court ban, investigations into the oil sector and the bribery allegations could be derailed by lack of money. Letters from the office of the Speaker, Parliament’s accounting officer and deputy clerk administrative services Chris Kaija- Kwamya, say Parliament does not have money to enable the ad hoc committee members travel to all the countries named in the bribery allegations. The committee needs Shs138 million to pay for the members’ travels and work abroad. The committee also requires Shs13m for domestic travels to Bunyoro sub-region where oil has been discovered. According to Parliament’s budget, the House appropriated Shs233m for all select and ad hoc committees. They are currently two ad hoc committees sitting. But Mr Kaija’s letter to the oil probe committee chairman, Michael Werikhe, says that “Parliament’s current financial situation is precarious.” Mr Kaija said the committee needs not travel to all the countries that were named and he advised the committee to use other methods like sending emails and making calls to the different banks named in the bribery allegations. An April 19 letter from Speaker Rebecca Kadaga also advised Mr Werikhe to split his committee into four teams so that each team goes to a different destination in order to save money. But with a committee of seven members and four staff, splitting the committee into four is untenable as some groups could end up with more staff than the investigating MPs. “You can’t send a delegation with more Parliament staff than MPs, it poses legitimacy questions,” said a member who refused to be named. Parliament’s spokesperson Helen Kaweesa, yesterday maintained that the suggestion to split the committee will save money. With only one month left to the deadline set for the investigations, the committee had planned to travel to Malta and then split and send one group to London, another to Dubai, which will also do Kenya. iimaka@ug.nationmedia.com