Parliamentary Commissioner and Dokolo Woman MP, Hon. Cecilia Ogwal, was last week granted leave by Parliament to introduce a Private Member’s Bill establishing the Institute of Parliamentary Studies as a one-stop training centre on legislation in the region.
“The Bill will grant the institute a semi-autonomous status and professionalise service delivery to Members of Parliament and staff, as well as create a mechanism to link the legislature with the local councils at various levels,” she said.
Ogwal said that these linkages are between the national Parliament and Local Government Councils.
“The Institute will also manage the twining arrangements between the Parliament of Uganda and other Parliaments,” she noted.
Ogwal added that currently the institute is operating under the Parliamentary Commission and is being funded by the government of Uganda through the Commission budget.
“The proposed Bill therefore, has no financial implication on Government,” she said.
She said that the Bill aims at, “creating an institutional mechanism for delivery of capacity building interventions for Members and staff of Parliament as well as stakeholders”.
Ogwal said there are a number of national organisations which are employing the philosophy and system of in-house service training.
“However, the best performing training services are those that exhibit autonomy in areas such as resource mobilisation and standard setting like the Uganda Revenue Authority Training lnstitute, the Judicial Training lnstitute and the Civil Service College,” she noted.
Hon. Alex Byarugaba (NRM, Isingiro South) seconded the motion saying that the Institute has for a long time been operating under the institution of Parliament therefore limiting its parameters.
“Most of the institutions in government and parliaments in other countries have fully fledged institutes that train their staff and MPs so it is only fair that Parliament has an institution affiliated and established by law,” he said.
