At least 143 legislators have signed a censure motion against the Parliamentary Commissioners, Eagle Online has learnt.
“The number of signatures for those seeking to censure the four Commissioners of Parliament has risen from 143 to 152,” the mover of the motion, MP Theodore Ssekikubo said.
He noted that they are yet to realise the 177 required signatures and urged more MPs to sign the censure motion.
Last month, a section of legislators led by Lwemiyaga County MP Theodore Ssekikubo and Sarah Opendi embarked on collecting signatures to censure Parliamentary Commissioners. The commissioners are accused of allocating themselves Shs1.7 billion.
The Parliamentary Commission’s leaked resolutions from May 2022 implicated the former Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Mathias Mpuuga, commissioner Solomon Silwany, Prossy Akampurira, and Esther Afoyochan.
According to a leaked document, Mpuuga was awarded a one-off service payment of Shs500 million, while three commissioners from the National Resistance Movement each received Shs400 million. The biggest opposition party in Parliament, the National Unity Platform (NUP), resolved to recall Mpuuga as the Parliamentary Commissioner.
The party said that although he responded to the NEC’s request to show cause why he should not be recalled from the Parliamentary Commission, he did not provide any satisfactory explanation for engaging in this grave action, which goes against the mission, values, and objectives of the party. In particular, he did not make any attempt to respond to the specific accusations leveled against him.
The proposal allegedly has to go through the legal and parliamentary affairs committee before it is brought to the floor of parliament for discussion. Every individual who gets retirement benefits, be it the speaker, vice president, or others, has to have it discussed and passed by parliament.
According to Rule 95 of the Parliamentary Commissioner Rules of Procedure, a parliamentary commissioner may be removed from office on grounds of incompetence, misconduct, failure, or refusal without justifiable reason to execute the duties of the Office of Commissioner.
The rules indicated that a motion for a resolution for the removal of a Commissioner shall be initiated by a notice in writing to the Clerk, signed by not less than one-third of all the voting Members of Parliament, indicating their intention to move the motion for the removal.
A motion for resolution under this rule shall be placed on the order paper fourteen days from the date on which notice to remove the commissioner shall have been communicated to the clerk. A Parliamentary Commissioner shall later be removed upon the vote of at least half of all voting Members of Parliament.
