Kassiano Wadri, the outspoken former chairman of parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, has won praise from President Yoweri Museveni for his leadership of the oversight committee.

In a speech on Tuesday, the president told the NRM MPs’ caucus that under the opposition Terego MP’s leadership between 2011-13, PAC “consulted” him on every contentious issue that touched his name.

Museveni attended the caucus at the prime minister’s office at Parliament on Tuesday to, among other things, discuss a report by PAC that implicated key officials in the mismanagement of Shs 10bn meant for the Presidential Initiative on market vendors and other small business operators. The officials are incoming government chief whip Ruth Nankabirwa and former finance minister Syda Bbumba.

INTENTIONS

Museveni wondered why PAC, now under Alice Alaso (Serere Woman, FDC), did not give him an opportunity to answer queries raised during the course of the committee’s investigation before the final report was written.

“These people who signed the report were either not knowledgeable or they had their intentions,” the president reportedly said. “PAC chaired by Wadri always consulted me on all issues which involved my name, but these ones didn’t.

“This was my project, but because I wanted to ensure accountability, I used the Micro-Finance Support Centre, to recommend the beneficiaries, but I wanted the poor traders to get capital,” Museveni added.

The president was flanked by Rwampara MP Vincent Kyamadidi, who said: “It’s true some of the people [MPs on PAC] didn’t attend the public hearings where we got the opinions of the would-be beneficiaries.”

In response, Evelyn Naome Kaabule (Luuka, Woman), who signed the report, said: “We were new on the committee and when we joined, we found many reports on the shelves and we divided ourselves into groups within the committee such that each group writes a report, but all members signed all reports without participating in its writing.”

Ahead of the 2011 elections, President Museveni earmarked Shs 10bn to support small businesses, but, according to the PAC report, the money was misappropriated by politicians and technocrats.

CHINESE LOANS

In his brief presentation, Museveni told his party MPs that he was more interested not in defending the errant government officials but in getting the caucus to support loan requests for $567.7 million (about 1.6 trillion) to facilitate the construction of Isimba-Bujagali interconnection project and Isimba Hydropower that would generate over 183MW once completed.

According to our sources, the president said that the loans approved by the Chinese government only await Parliament’s approval here.

“I have come here for those requests and you are going to support me, but you people have a tendency of shouting [in Parliament] without any knowledge,” he warned, adding: “So, leave those who can talk to speak,” a source further quoted Museveni as saying.

He said the Chinese are perplexed by Uganda’s reluctance to approve the loans: “They were approved by China and they are wondering what Uganda, which applied for these loans, is still doing to approve them. I am going to China [very soon] to sign an agreement with them.”

Source: The Observer