MPs question continued existence of Uganda's privatisation unit

MPs on the Parliamentary Accounts Committee have declared as illegal the existence of a director for the Parastatal monitoring unit - PMU

The MPs arrived at this conclusion while quizzing the director of PMU, Chris Mugisha on the relevance of the continued operation of the unit.

Mugisha had appeared before the committee along with the Privatization Unit, director Moses Mwase.

MPs were curious to figure out when the Privatisation Unit will wind up after the divestiture process has run its course.

The committee chairperson Nandala Mafabi demanded for answers on whether the unit should continue existing in perpetuity.

Nandala noted that the finance committee of parliament had even recommended that the Privatisation Unit be wound up but expressed anger the same had not been done.

Mugisha, however, argued that the Public Enterprises Reform and Divestiture(PERD) Act of  1993 provides for the unit to execute the monitoring role of government agencies and parastatals in order to support public enterprise reform.

He stated that after starting out with 118 agencies the Privatisation Unit has now 34 agencies to handle.

He was supported by Mwase who said the unit ensures exercise of good governance and management practices in the government agencies in which government holding is 100% ownership or with majority shareholding.

This led MPs to protest noting that that the finance minister is the one entrusted with the monitoring role, they inquired as to how the Unit performs monitoring without a seat on the boards of these agencies.

MPs rejected the argument that the monitoring unit(PMU) is the institutional framework through which the minister executes the monitoring function.

On further scrutiny of the law, the MPs argued that the PMU directorate was never legally recognised with the PERD act only allowing for a director of the Privatization unit.

This , according to legislators, means that the directors of the PMU and the PU cannot be at the same level as is the case currently.

Nandala was assisted by Kasule Sebunya the Nansana Municipality MP in pointing this out.

Mwase in defence of his colleague noted that the PMU was an institutional development which the ministry has operated with for years.

MPs dismissed his submission stating that the creation of directorates was a move to ensure existence of job opportunities and associated salaries.

The committee has also been briefed that the PU has never presented Biannual reports to Parliament as is required by law. This came to light during further cross-examination of Mwase by Nandala.