The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has said efforts to investigate legislators accused of soliciting bribes from the public have yielded no fruits as there is no evidence to pin them.
Kadaga, appearing on “Face the Citizens” TV programme produced by Wizarts Foundation on Monday, 17 June 2019, said that despite occasional whistle blowing reports accusing legislators of corruption, the alleged victims have denied offering legislators bribes.
”I have tried to do investigations in order to catch someone but you know people do things in hiding,” said Kadaga. She added: “One day, I was told there were Members who had been harassing a particular Permanent Secretary. I called that particular Permanent Secretary but she denied the allegations and I was left in the air.”
Kadaga reiterated that corruption has become a national issue that requires dedicated efforts if it is to be wiped out.
Kadaga took the chance to applaud Parliament for what she termed as ‘the new working system’ which she said was the reason the 3rd Session was able to pass 26 Bills, performing higher than other legislatures in East Africa.
“Our performance has to do with our new way of work, we dedicated the 1st Meeting to legislation, the 2nd Meeting to reports and the 3rd Session to the budget,” said Kadaga.
The Speaker revealed that the Parliament leadership had applied immense pressure on the Members to ensure that Bills did not run into the reports session and for the reports not run into budget process.
However, the Speaker said she was frustrated by failure of government to Table critical Bills such as the electoral reforms in the just concluded 3rd Session. She noted that electoral reforms require ample time for processing and yet the 4th Session is often interrupted by campaigns.
“I am frustrated because government did not adhere to the plan. I had wanted the electoral reforms worked on by May 2019,” she said.
The Speaker’s full interview will be aired on Saturday, 22 June 2019 at 4pm on NBS TV.
