Ugandan MPs, led by Speaker Anita Among, have criticized Finance PS Ramathan Ggoobi for slashing Parliament budget by 50 per cent and for saying that the House has no powers to alter allocations.
Tasked to lead efforts aimed at frugal government spending, Ggoobi, the Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury (PSST), moved to reduce Parliament’s extravagance in the midst of economic challenges.
But Parliament is now questioning his suitability for the finance ministry’s top job as accounting officer.
Bukanga North MP Nathan Byanyima was unhappy with PSST Ggoobi’s move to cut Parliament’s budget and to punch holes in the institution’s powers.
Byanyima even suggested that PSST Ggoobi was not an official of high calibre, wondering what had gone wrong at the Ministry of finance.
“I have seen a paper that the Parliamentary budget will be cut by 50%. Where does such a person [PSST Ramathan Ggoobi] get powers? There is a rule that we must respect each other, treat other people the way you want to be treated. We have been demeaned to nothing,” said Byanyima.
“When the Secretary to Treasury goes to a Committee of Parliament and says that we have no role to play in the budgeting and appropriation process, it defeats my understanding. Has this country changed? I don’t see why we are wasting our time going into the budget if it doesn’t make sense [to PSST Ramathan Ggoobi].”
Tororo District Woman MP Sarah Opendi informed the House that Ggoobi had told NBS on the morning of March 28 that Parliament does not have powers.
“He said Parliament has no powers to move money from one vote to another because budgeting for this country isn’t our responsibility: that it is the Executive that knows the priority of this country,” submitted Opendi, before punching holes in Ggoobi’s suitability for the PSST job.
“So, what is our role as Parliament? And the challenge we have in this country is picking people who haven’t grown in public service and placing them in such sensitive positions because a Secretary to Treasury used to rise from down and when you pick someone from somewhere, they don’t respect leaders.”
Speaker Anita Among then led fellow MPs in criticizing PSST Ggoobi for ‘humiliating’ parliament.
“Our deduction of 50 per cent, shall we be paid salary? You even have the courtesy to put it in bold, on a statutory vote that Parliament shouldn’t get money,” reacted Among.
MINISTER MUSAASIZI APOLOGIZES FOR PSST RAMATHAN GGOOBI
Henry Musasizi, Minister of State for Finance, could not defend PSST Ggoobi. He told the House to ignore the accounting officer’s remarks and to treat them as his personal opinions and not the position of the finance ministry.
“To the best of my knowledge and experience, appropriation powers rest with Parliament. If the Secretary to Treasury expressed his views and opinions, I am not privy to what the Secretary to Treasury said, but I know but I know the Secretary to Treasury doesn’t have a chance to speak on this microphone,” said Musasizi.
“I would like to invite colleagues to disregard what the Secretary to Treasury said we should always take what we say as Ministry of Finance on this microphone. If whatever he said wherever he said offended the Committee of Parliament or Parliament in general, I would like to apologize on his behalf.”
Parliament has in recent weeks been on the spot over extravagant expenditure, corruption and abuse of funds. Speaker Anita Among has hidden under the cover of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, sweeping parliament corruption under the carpet, and also blaming a former speaker for exposing the rot in parliament so as to take her job. (See Details Here and There).
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