CHALLENGES FACED BY COMMITTEES

During the 2nd session of the 10th Parliament, Committees were afflicted by the
following challenges:

Inadequate finances

The funds appropriated to the Committees at the onset of the FY 2017/18 were
inadequate for the planned Committee activities. Travel abroad remains the
highest cost driver in Committees with overseas benchmarking a salient and
preferred methodology of work. Considering its attendant high costs, the
upward revision of travel abroad per diem and the static budgetary allocations
to Committees, most Committees witnessed the exhaustion of funds way before
the end of the Financial Year and with it the stalling of Committee business. A
case in point was the Committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline which
failed to undertake overseas benchmarking trips on the electronic tabling of
documents, and consideration of the proposal for a committee on SDGs. An
additional case is Public Accounts Committee (Local Government) whose mode
of operation is holding meetings with the entities in the respective Audit
Regions and the attendant costs. In the Financial Year 2017/18 where its
budget allocation for travel inland was UGX. 553,332,811, the Committee
could barely conduct meetings in four and a half (4 ½) Regions out of the nine
Audit Regions, leading to delays till the following Financial Year when
Parliament is able to facilitate it.

There is need to significantly enhance the budgetary allocation to Committees

and strengthen accountability for work referred to Committees.

Poor time keeping by Members

During the period under review, it was noted that many Committees witnessed
delayed commencement of meetings and other related activities due to poor
time keeping by Members. While the conventional commencement time for
meetings is 10:00am, actual commencement is usually over an hour later. This
is not only embarrassing but also a major factor in slowing down the
progression of Committee business.

There is an urgent need for cultural change in as far as time management is

concerned.

Chronic Absenteeism by some Members

An analysis of Committee attendance by members during the second session
reveals the significant prevalence of absenteeism. This impedes the realization
of quorum in Committees and negates the representative function of the
absentee Members.

There is need to evoke the rule 112 (3)

Compliance with the Parliamentary Calendar

During the period under review, it was observed that adherence to an
established Parliamentary Calendar would go a long way in streamlining
Committee activity. It was difficult to forecast recess durations and whenever
the House went on recess, some Committee schedules suffered disruptions.

Conflicting schedules of Committees

The concurrent scheduling of Committee meetings and yet members belong to
more than one Committee implies that Members have to split their time and
commitment between two committees. A case in point is that one third of the
Members on the Committee on Rules belong to the Committee on Legal &
Parliamentary Affairs; when the Legal Committee was sitting to consider the
Constitution Amendment (No.2) Bill, 2017, the Committee on Rules would not
sit, in order to accommodate this.

Mandate of the Committee on Local Government Accounts

Section 88(7) and (8) provide that a local government public accounts
committee (DPAC) shall examine the reports of the Auditor General, Chief
Internal Auditor and any reports of commissions of inquiry and shall submit its
report to the council and to the Minister responsible for Local Governments
who shall lay the report before Parliament.

Under Rule 179 of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament PAC(LG) is mandated

to consider the above Report together with the Report of the Auditor General
and Report back to the House.

However, Parliament has not received any Report from the Minister as
envisaged in Section 88 (7) of the Local Government Act. The Committee has
therefore had to revert to Article 163 of the Constitution (since it is the
Supreme Law) to try and ensure that the Auditor General’s Reports are
disposed off within the stipulated 6 months.
The Accounting entities on which the Committee receives reports from the
Auditor General are as follows:
Entities Number (including the newly
created)
Districts 127
Municipal Councils 41
Town Councils 174
Sub-Counties and Divisions 1,189
From the above Table it is evident that the entities are too many to be
considered by one Committee in a period of 6 months or even double that time.

The mandate of the Committee should be amended in the Local Government Act
to directly consider the Auditor General’s Reports on Municipalities, Districts and
Town Councils; while the DPACs consider the Lower Local Governments.

Unrealistic timelines by the Constitution and the PFM Act

Article 163 (5) of the 1995 Constitution provides a 6 months’ timeline for
accountability committees to process reports of the Auditor General. Given the
volume of work before Accountability committees.

There is need for an amendment to increase the period by 3 more months in

order to reduce backlog and increase effectiveness.

Obsession with travel abroad as a modus operandi for Committees

On many a Committee, Members have found it fashionable and expedite to
condition consideration and conclusion of Committee business to travel
abroad. Given the attendant costs and elaborate time-consuming processes,
this obsession with travel abroad negates the timeliness of Committee work. In
some cases where Committee funds are unavailable for such trips abroad,
some Members have solicited travel opportunities and other pecuniary benefits
from the MDAs they superintend over.

Committee leadership need targeted mindset change in the discharge of their

leadership roles with regard to the appropriate methodologies of executing work
on Committees.

Insufficient committee rooms

While there are 28 Parliamentary committees, and only 14 Committee rooms
are available. This impedes the scheduling of Committee meetings hard since
sometimes, sectoral and standing committees all have urgent business to
consider.

Late submission of information from stakeholders

Some stakeholders take long to provide information required by the Committee.
This slows down the work of the Committee.

Parliamentary Fora
These fora compete with the Committee for quorum because they schedule
their activities when committees are meeting or have an activity. This is made
worse by the fact that they always have transport refund for the Members.
Failure by Ministries to attend Meetings as scheduled

The failure by Accounting Officers to attend meetings as scheduled despite

early notification has hampered the expeditious progress of the committee in
transacting the business before it.