Exclusive: Parliament Succumbs to Museveni Pressure; to Receive Unspent MPs’ COVID-19 Cash

President Museveni’s letter warning of serious consequences for lawmakers who assumed the responsibility of the state’s “purchasing officers” after receiving the controversial Shs 10bn has exerted mounting pressure on the House with the Clerk to Parliament Jane Kibirige now ordering MPs to swiftly account for the funds.

ChimpReports has learned that the Parliament Commission held a secret meeting on May 11 to discuss the president’s letter in which he directed the Auditor General to probe how the funds were used.

“We never seen such panic since Speaker Rebecca Kadaga took office almost ten years ago,” said a source who attended the meeting, adding, “The Parliament is now walking on pins and needles because the President is determined to use every tool at his disposal to assert his authority which he suspects Kadaga is trying to undermine.”

In a letter exclusively seen by this investigative website, Kibirige on May 12 wrote to all Members of Parliament, directing whoever had not yet used the funds by May 5 to “Return the funds to the Parliamentary Commission in accordance with the Communication of the Clerk to Parliament to MPs dated April 22, 2020; and submit the accountability for the funds to the clerk to Parliament/accounting officer.”

Kibirige further said MPs must ensure that “your accountability is submitted to the Clerk to Parliament/accounting officer of Parliament as soon as possible but in any case not later than Wednesday 27, May, 2020.”

ChimpReports extensively published stories on the Shs 938.8bn supplementary budget that was hastily passed by Parliament without debate on April 7 2020.

The money included Shs 304bn earmarked for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parliament’s Shs 10bn that has become the center of storm and pitted the House against the other two arms of government was picked from the Shs 304bn COVID-19 budget.

The details of the supplementary only came to light on April 17 2020 in an exclusive reporting by this investigative website.

In a direct departure from the High Court order directing MPs to return the money or take it to their respective district taskforces, Kadaga told MPs to follow her earlier guidelines.

“Don’t panic but use the Shs 20m as I had directed. Parliament is independent and accountability starts from here. We have the accounting officer here,” added Kadaga.

Kadaga further guided that, “Under our rules of procedure, any MP who loses a motion against a majority is obliged to stand up in the House and complain. But not to rush to court to overturn Parliament’s majority vote. The MPs who rushed to court, flouted our rules.”

She also threatened to subject MPs who returned the money to Parliament to a disciplinary action, a move that attracted wide public outrage.

A senior official at the Auditor General’s office on Wednesday said they were at the “planning stage” of the investigation into the COVID-19 fund expenditure by MPs.

Museveni argued in his letter that the decision of Parliament to allocate themselves money was “unconstitutional” and hinted on a possible plan to undermine his authority.

“Both In logic and law, it cannot be correct that the head of government, the president, through the ministers responsible, submits a plan for expenditure to parliament and, then, Parliament reshuffles the priorities and creates its own against the plan of the president,” argued Museveni.

“Yes, Parliament May approve or disapprove. That is in order. In that case, the President will discuss with the MPs, hear one another’s logic and agree to a way forward. However for Parliament to unilaterally reshuffle the priorities of the government, it means that there is no need to have the president and the executive branch of government.”

As of May 12, out of 458 MPs, 101 had returned the money leading to a collection of Shs 2bn. The money yet be to collected amounts to Shs 7.9bn.

Article 156 of the Uganda Constitution, 1995 gives Parliament the power to appropriate funds presented to it in an Appropriation or Supplementary Appropriation Bills which are prepared by the Executive branch.

However, Article 93 of the Constitution provides that Parliament shall not impose any charge on the consolidated funds unless the motion is brought by the Executive.

Dozens of MPs including Bobi Wine, Jacob Oulanya and army representatives and many more have since returned the money to Parliament, describing the COVID-19 cash as a bribe.