The Opposition National Unity Platform has responded to the lingering question of whether they will partake of the Shs 200m given to each MP to facilitate them with a vehicle of they will return the money to support the health challenge of the country during the CoviD-19 pandemic.
Speaking on behalf of the party, the opposition chief whip John Baptist Nambeshe said that the party recognizes a “wastage” on the side of government to release a whopping Shs108billion to buy car fleets for MPs.
Nambeshe said that the party stands with most Ugandans who have been utterly shocked that at a time when the country is grappling with the dire effects of the lockdown, the government has released Shs108billion to MPs to purchase cars.
“This is just one of the very many aspects of wastage of public resources which NUP has been critical of, including the billions of money spent by State House every day,” Nambeshe wrote.
He added that NUP believes MPs have the capacity to buy vehicles for themselves.
He also said the party had agreed to devote a substantial amount of the Shs200m grant towards people’s welfare at a constituency level.
“Ordinarily public services are supposed to be carried out by the government, but that happens when you have a government that cares for the people. It is in this regard that most NUP MPs have already been undertaking projects in their constituencies aimed at elevating the conditions of their people,” he said.
He said in the coming days, individual NUP MPs will continue to carry out the activities in their respective constituencies, mostly targeting; health, education, agriculture, and youth empowerments.
Nambeshe argues that the option of returning the money was discussed in the NUP leaders retreat but it was discouraged due to fear that such money would be misused by the same regime.
It was therefore resolved that a percentage of the money goes towards handling specific issues in the different constituencies.
The government recently revised the budget for procurement of new vehicles for MPs in the 11th parliament from shs321 million to shs200 million each.
However, according to reports, the Ministry of Finance has finally released the money to the accounts of each of the 520 Members of Parliament and 26 ex-officios in the 11t parliament
