MPs\nand members of the civil society are reviewing the performance of the 10th\nParliament, with prominence being given to ways of deepening citizen\ninvolvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\n3rd Annual Legislative Sector Review, running under the theme, \u201cLegislating for\ngood governance and sustainable development\u201d saw the discussion of MPs pay, the\ninstitution\u2019s budget and citizen involvement in the activities of the\nlegislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nClerk to Parliament, Ms Jane Kibirige, said the year\u2019s review is critical as\nresolutions will feed into the next phase of the sector\u2019s strategic plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe\ntiming and discussions of this 3rd review are critical to the works of\nParliament in three ways: first, it focuses on the mid-term performance of the\n10th Parliament, feed into the design of the priority areas of the sector and\nthe formulation of the next strategic plan,\u201d said Kibirge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prominent\nin the discussion was the issue of MPs emoluments, which is an emotive issue\nthat has seen Parliament suffer criticism from a section of the public and\nmembers of the civil society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hon.\nJacob Oboth, also Chairperson of the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary\nAffairs, criticised civil society organisations for habitually bashing MPs on\nthe issue of their emoluments without suggesting alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose\nwho are bashing us do not understand the issue of the independence of\nParliament; how do you place the issue of Parliament\u2019s budget under another\nauthority,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cParliament\ncurrently has 3 per cent of the National Budget and most of its priorities are\nunfunded, how do you relate that with the criticism we always receive for some\nof the entitlements we earn?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nDirector of Clerks, Mr Emmanuel Bakwega, suggested an alternative to end the\ncurrent impasse over budget allocation to MPs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\nthink there should be a way to resolve this issue permanently through\nlegislation and expressly including a certain percentage of the Gross Domestic\nProduct (literally the monetary value of the economy) and then Parliament works\nwithin that,\u201d said Mr Bakwega.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MP\nHellen Asamo said as people with disabilities, Parliament has done so much with\nregards to making the institution physically accessible, but that the biggest\nproblem is with access to documents and other services that are needed to aid\nPWDs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MPs\nand stakeholders agreed on the need to enrich Parliament with human and\nfinancial resources, which they said are important in as far as getting Parliament\ncloser to the people and dealing with post-legislative scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hon. Agnes Ameede said going forward, Parliament\nshould increase the number of research officers to better the quality of output\nat Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nreview runs from October 30 2019 to November 1 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MPs and members of the civil society are reviewing the performance of the 10th Parliament, with prominence being given to ways of deepening citizen involvement. The 3rd Annual Legislative Sector Review, running under the theme, \u201cLegislating for good governance and sustainable development\u201d saw the discussion of MPs pay, the institution\u2019s budget and citizen involvement in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":11905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n