When Speaker Anita Among adjourned the House on Tuesday, she was full of hope that the process of passing Bills to rationalise government agencies would be completed next week.
In fact, the Speaker even ordered Accountability Committees that are scrutinising the Auditor General’s December 2023 report to postpone meetings with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) whose books of accounts were queried. This was to give way to the priority of the government: the rationalisation of agencies.
Tuesday, 27th February is when the House is expected to resume plenary sittings at 10 am to start receiving reports from sectoral Committees that are processing different rationalisation of agencies’ Bills.
Will there be such reports on Tuesday? Chances are high that Committees will have more time to look at the Bills after the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee poured cold water on the process after raising a red flag on the financial implications of the rationalisation process.
On Thursday, the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee ordered the halting of the consideration of all the rationalisation Bills under its dockets after MPs pointed out that the Certificate of Financial Implication (CFI) issued by the Ministry of Finance didn’t indicate the cost implication of abolishing or merging agencies.
This followed a concern raised by Ibrahim Ssemujju, Kira Municipality MP, who pointed out that although section 76 of the Public Finance Management Act 2015 stipulates that a Certificate of Financial Implication must include the revenue estimates and expenditure of any Bill, the certificates issued by the Ministry of Finance didn’t have these details.
You see the framers of this law, even when you are winding down a parastatal, there will be costs, there are people you are compensating, there are domestic arrears to deal with, you simply can’t walk to Parliament and say there will be zero costs and tomorrow you present a budget, I mean, Parliament must be respected. The certificate before us is actually not a certificate under section 76 of the PFMA, said Ssemujju.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Nobert Mao, Public Service Minister Wilson Muruli Mukasa and Attorney General Miryowa Kiwanuka appeared before the Committee to defend the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2024 that seeks to merge the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) and the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).
Alongside the Constitutional Amendment Bill is the Arbitration and Conciliation Bill, 2024, whose objective is to give effect to the Government Policy for Rationalisation of Government Agencies and Public Expenditure that was adopted by the Cabinet on 22nd February 2021 and contained in Cabinet Minute No. 43(CT 2021). If amended, the Arbitration and Dispute Resolution as a corporate entity will be abolished, hence getting established as a department in the Ministry responsible for justice. This is also before the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee and is one of the key pieces of legislation to be passed by Parliament to pave the way for other rationalisation Bills.
Asuman Basalirwa, Bugiri Municipality MP, who was one of the legislators that had called on the House to pull the plug on the Constitution Amendment Bill until the Government institutes a Constitutional Review Commission to deal with all other proposed amendments, used his chance in the Committee to challenge the Ministers and the Attorney General over their rush hour kind of work.
When you look at what section 76 (PFMA) is talking about, it even indicates the time, because the cost estimates and revenue after the Bill have come into effect so that in itself must be able to come out which with due respect isn’t indicated here, said Basalirwa.
Attorney General Kiwanuka, in response, argued that the PFMA gives the Minister of Finance powers to issue the CFI on any Bill, and if the certificate in the current situation indicates no cost, it means the merging and abolishing of some agencies won’t impose any cost on the Government.
This law was made and it gave someone competence, saying it shall be issued by the Minister. This was issued by the Minister, and I think the Minister is satisfied that he has the estimates here; whether the estimates are zero, we should ask him where the estimates are. This isn’t a legal issue if I tell you it will have no cost; the only difference here is that I have given the indication in words, not figures, so he has given an indication that there are no costs, said Kiryowa.
The Attorney General’s response incited MPs against him, with Ssemujju moving a motion before the Committee to halt the consideration of all Bills.
I am now formally moving that we halt consideration of this bill, Ssemujju requested.
However, Committee Vice Chairperson Yusuf Mutembuli did not entertain the motion but instead asked the Attorney General and the two Ministers to vacate the meeting room so that legislators could engage in an in-house conversation.
Before they departed, Kiryowa relaxed his stance on the CFI, suggesting that the Committee invite the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to answer questions related to the money.
I am not the author of the certificate of financial implication, I can’t quite answer the questions raised to me; these questions must be raised to the Ministry of Finance. I will be happy to explain to you my part of the legal aspect and you can go on with the issue of Finance, then the Committee can go on with its own decision, he said.
Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu, however, asked the government team to go back and scrutinise the Bills tabled and forwarded to the Committee on the grounds that there were some “kindergarten mistakes” that needed to be cleaned up before the Committee summons them for the next meeting.
On top of the Constitutional Amendment Bill that looks to merge UHRC and EOC, the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has other Bills, including the proposed amendment to have the mandate to register marriages move from the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) to the National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA).
