The Leader of Opposition in the August House Rt. Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi, has thrown stones at a presidential move creating new agencies at the cost of burdening taxpayers.
Ssenyonyi says despite ongoing efforts to streamline government departments and agencies duplications of the above are still happening.
Speaking during a parliamentary plenary session on Tuesday, Ssenyonyi pointed out that the parliament was approached by the government to rationalize several entities, citing reasons such as the duplication of roles and the need to save taxpayers’ money.
He stated, “The reasoning by government was two-fold. One, there’s duplication of roles. There’s an entity handling certain matters, another entity doing the same work, so duplication. The other reason given by government was that it was important that we save taxpayers’ money.”
Ssenyonyi said that parliament undertook the rationalization process in good faith, understanding the logic and political rationale behind it. However, he expressed bafflement at the government’s recent actions, which he described as taking “one step forward, two steps backwards.”
Ssenyonyi criticized the government for establishing a new unit called state intelligence and strategic operations unit created to fight corruption in the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA).
He questioned the need for the new unit, arguing that existing anti-graft entities should be empowered instead of creating additional units. “Why not empower them, as opposed to creating a new entity?” Ssenyonyi asked.
He raised concerns about the operational funds and structure for the new unit, asking for the government needs to clarify its rationale for these actions, especially after advocating for rationalization to reduce expenditure.
Ssenyonyi urged the government to reconsider its approach and focus on enhancing the capacity and efficiency of existing entities rather than creating new ones. He suggested that if current personnel are deemed incompetent, they should be replaced with qualified individuals to ensure effective service delivery.
The Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa, who chaired plenary referred the matter to the sectorial committees responsible for scrutinizing the need for such departments.
In the same vein Ssenyonyi accused the appointing authority of selecting a person with a known reputation of tax fraud to head the URA overseeing unit. David Kalemera was appointed in early July to fight corruption in the tax body, however, he said the Kalemera was prosecuted in courts of law for tax fraud.
“Are we setting a thief to catch a thief?” he questioned
The LOP further revealed that the case, Republic of Uganda versus Kalemira David and others, was adjudicated in the Anti-Corruption Court at Kololo, , where Kalemira, along with co-accused Semanda Ian Paul and Kazigwe Ronald, was convicted of tax fraud.
