By Spy Uganda
Nakawa West Member of Parliament Joel Ssenyonyi dubbed Chairperson Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) is sitting on tenterhooks after Speaker Anita Among ordering probe into his poor performance.
The speaker said despite funding the Committee heavily, it has just worked on four reports out of 107 inquiries thus ordering an audit into its poorest performance.
“We have invested lots of money in the committee [to perform its duties], but there are no results. I can’t say shame on Parliament, but shame on you COSASE,” Hon Among said to Him Joel who was seated attentively in front row in the opposition side.
This is the second probe against Ssenyonyi ordered by Speaker Among. In November last year, she ordered investigations against the COSASE boss for leaking the Uganda Airlines report to the media.
“We want to know who leaked out the report, and we want a report from the Leader of the Opposition. We are not going to encourage that. How do you leak a report before it is discussed? Why do we discuss what has gone out?” furious Among questioned then.
She, reiterated that Parliament would conduct its parallel investigations into who leaked the information to the media and of course the intentions behind it will be unearthed.
Meanwhile, when Ssenyonyi today requested to present this report on the floor of Parliament but speaker was quick to ‘lecturer’ him that it was impossible to discuss such a matter when he is still under investigation for leaking it.
Ssenyonyi’s actions are contrary to rule 216 (1) of the Rules of Procedure which prohibits the publishing of a report or any evidence in a committee before it is presented to the House.
Infact, Anita ruled that the report will not be tabled on the floor and instead parliament will adopt Auditor General’s Report on the same as opposed to COSASE’s.
Among also ruled that all the other 107 reports that Joel and team has failed to work on will be withdrawn from them and it’s Auditor General’s Reports that will be adopted for action.
As we speak, COSASE has no Jon until AG produces new reports for another quarter. And this also means that the members will not access the money allocated to do committee works. Talk about double trouble…
