Paddy Kinyera
3.5K posts
@PBKinyera
Policy Analyst | Researcher | Teacher | Critical thinker | Sportsman | Villager | Truck-driver | Farmer
Habibi, why would the Leader of Opposition, @JoelSsenyonyi have a budget of 354 million per month in a country where an approximated 42 per cent of the population live on less than 220,000 per month? So, what Joel blows in just 30 days is equivalent to what 1,609 Ugandans earn in a month! This is gross abuse of taxpayers' money that we need to call out! Here is where it get gets interesting, the LoP budget now is 4.243 billion, that is slightly lower than the budget of the speaker in 2021 which stood at 4.432 billion. According to Oulanyah, the former speaker, that sum a was already too high and he wanted it slashed to just 2 billion. Whether he would do it, we don't know since he passed on before he could. What the Anita Among parliamentary leadership did was to increase the LoP's budget - slightly by just 37 per cent - and then increase her own budget 384 per cent and that of her deputy by over 400 per cent! If their calculation was that the LoP would stay mute because of their own increase, looks like it worked the magic! Classic case of "Parliament is the Bribe", as @NativeLandgrab once wrote! Of course the increase didn't start with Joel Ssenyonyi, looks like it started in the era of @MathiasMpuuga but what is certain is that Joel has continued to enjoy the benefits that come with this budget that is nothing short of a gross abuse of the poor, oppressed, Ugandan taxpayers! #UgandaParliamentExhibition #ParliamentBudgetUg
This is a legitimate concern, especially because it involves tax payers' money. Firstly, the LOP's budget caters to opposition MPs and staff, unlike the Speaker and Deputy Speaker who don't have MPs under them. So contrary to what some believe, the budget for the office of LOP is not money that goes to the pocket of the office bearer. If anything, I don't even have control over that budget, the Speaker has to always clear any activities that we propose to do as the Opposition, and sometimes she doesn't give clearance even if it's budgeted for. The Speaker controls the budgets of all departments and committees of Parliament. Even when committees have money budgeted for them, many times the money is used elsewhere by the institution and therefore not availed to the particular committee. Likewise, the LOP's budget is not under the LOP's control. Some time recently as the Opposition we planned to execute some activities which were budgeted for, but the Finance department told us the money was not available, eventhough on paper(budget) it was. I wrote to the Clerk to Parliament as the Accounting Officer, asking him what happened to the resources since we had not utilized them. He wrote back to me explaining that the Speaker had directed for the usage of that money for different Parliament activities which I didn't even know about, and this is a concern I have raised severally regarding the operations at Parliament. So that 4.2bn budget is in the real sense not under my control.
@TonyNatif @JoelSsenyonyi That money is allocated to him not him allocating it to himself
Public accountability should never be and has never been a mob exercise. @JoelSsenyonyi as a LoP accounts for his budget, and the report is shared with the Parliamentary Commission. Kindly, exercise your rights using the AIA-2005 and share the LoP's audited accounts. PLEASE.
What do you know about these two great men ?
Arsenal fans flooded the streets of Kenya celebrating the Premier League title 🥹🇰🇪 (via @nickiBIGFISH)
