Each MP to get Shs190m for vehicles

After the MPs demanded a pay raise to protect themselves from the biting inflation, it has also emerged that authorities in Parliament are quietly negotiating with officials in government to increase MPs’ motor vehicle acquisition fund from Shs60 million to Shs192 million.
Ms Justine Lumumba, the new Housing Minister and a former Parliamentary Commissioner, told reporters on Friday that the commission sanctioned a Shs190 million car grant for each MP. There are 375 MPs in the Ninth Parliament. This means taxpayers will have to fork out more than Shs71.2 billion to buy new vehicles for MPs. However, Ms Lumumba said the cost and the modalities will be subject to discussion with the Ministry of Finance.
“We are still in negotiation with Ministry of Finance… everything has gone up, prices have doubled and others even tripled. To get sound vehicles we need this money to facilitate members,” she said. “After our negotiations, a decision will be made whether to buy new cars for MPs or give them money to top-up.”
It has also emerged that Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and her deputy Jacob Oulanyah have already acquired brand new vehicles at Shs419 million each—replacing the old fleet. The vehicles were bought from Spear Motors. “The vehicles for the Speaker and Deputy were old and we needed to replace them,” Parliament’s Public Relations Officer Helen Kawesa said on Friday. “They were bought 10 years ago, they had mechanical problems and a decision was made to have these vehicles replaced.” She added: “We followed all the procurement rules and the process was transparent. This purchase started six months ago.”
On Thursday, the lawmakers chased away journalists and stopped coverage of a plenary debate where they reportedly agreed to push for a pay raise in a move, according to sources, which is intended to shield them from rising cost of living biting other Ugandans.
Ms Kawesa later cited sections of parliamentary rules that allow ejecting journalists if their presence during discussion will threaten national security. But when asked if indeed MPs’ pay is a matter of national security, Ms Kawesa replied: “MPs requested a closed session because there were issues they wanted to discuss. There was no mischief. It’s only that the new MPs wanted privacy. They were not comfortable with the presence of the press.”
...posho now goes for UGX 4000 per kilo...just saying. But yet again, who cares?