While the erosion of common courtesy in everyday life is an accepted but much-lamented fact, there is one group of individuals who are expected to bear the slings and arrows of outrageous rudeness without complaint. MPs are elected to public office and should, therefore, not be the ones to be cited in the embezzlement of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. And their response must always be a submissive, apologetic shrug of the shoulders.
Not this time though: the administration of the August House has come out guns blazing to challenge a whistle-blower who wrote to the Inspector General of Government (IGG), claiming collusion between the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) and officials handling the procurement at Parliament.
The embezzlement allegations are about an estimated Shs 200bn parliament chamber extension tender, with claims that the evaluation process was being done in a way that is predetermined to facilitate the award to a certain bidder.
The July 16 petition received by the IGG, indicates that senior officials at Parliament and the PPDa are in collusion “with the intention of making a fraudulent award of the proposed contract after a well-planned collusive cartel among two bidders”.
The other party to the dubious deal are the five big firms who are fighting for the tender including Roko Construction Ltd, CRJE (East Africa) Ltd, China Civil Engineering Construction Company, China Complete Plant Import and Export, Seyani Brothers & Co. Ltd and China National Aero-technology International.
Mr Chris Obore, the Director of Communications at Parliament said that the complainants should give chance to institutions of government to perform their duties.
He said Parliament is waiting for the report from PPDA to give a report and a away forward since the new chamber is needed.
PPDA Executive Director Cornelia Sabiiti said last evening that the body was still conducting investigations and “a report would be issued soon.”
Crowded
The number of parliamentarians has grown greatly since independence and the current chambers, which were built in the early 1960s, are too small to accommodate the new numbers, standing at 427, up from 375, prompting some legislators in the 10th Parliament to stand in corridors during sessions.
