Parliament in vetting again

The Speaker, Rebecca Kadaga, has been holding discussions with top Parliament officials, seeking to amend the House rules and open the proceedings of the Appointments committee to the general public.

According to sources privy to the discussions, Kadaga, who chairs the committee, has held discussions with the chairperson of the committee on Rules, Discipline and Privileges as well as the Parliament Commission to have the amendment hatched. One of the commissioners, Chris Baryomunsi (Kinkizi East), confirmed that discussions have been ongoing.

“We have had some top discussions but a firm conclusion has not yet been reached,” Baryomunsi said.

The chairman of the rules committee, Fox Odoi (West Budama North  MP), also confirmed the development.

“Discussions have been ongoing and Parliament was of the view that vetting should be made open to the public,” he said.

We understand that the speaker has of recent come under attack over some of the President’s nominees who were rejected by her committee, including Idah Nantaba (Kayunga Woman) who had been denied the post of junior Lands minister until yesterday.

Besides, a team of lawyers led by the shadow attorney general, Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri), Wilfred Nuwagaba (Ndorwa East), and Joseph Mutebi Balikuddembe (Busiro South) have been pushing for the amendment of house rules to bring them in line with the constitution as provided by law.

Those in favour of the proposed amendment argue that secretive vetting of presidential nominees is unconstitutional, non-transparent and violates democratic practices.

“In an information age, you cannot have such a public interest matter done secretively. It leaves everyone in suspicion,” says Balikuddembe.

Bar the Vice President and Prime Minister, the approval of the other presidential nominees, including ministers, ambassadors and heads of statutory bodies are vetted by the Appointments committee on behalf of Parliament. Whereas ordinarily committees report to the House, the Appointments committee tends to usurp the powers of Parliament since it is not obliged to share its opinion on nominees with the latter.

Early this year when parliamentary rules were being considered for amendment, the rules committee proposed that the proceedings of the Appointments committee should not only be open but also reported to the plenary. The proposal was, however, contested by the deputy Attorney General, Fred Ruhindi, who argued that vetting in the open would make the process appear like a court session and invade nominees’ privacy.

But Odoi told us he disagreed with that argument.

“This is a public office and if anyone is much [more] interested in maintaining their privacy, they should just not accept the public appointments,” he said.

Some sceptics have expressed concern that if the approval of nominees goes to the plenary, the executive would always have its way since it commands a vast majority in Parliament. However, as Balikuddembe points out, such people forget that the NRM has majority in the current Appointments committee, which has rejected several nominees already.

Let’s do things in accordance with the law and let numbers decide if they think they are justifiable,” Balikuddembe said.

Out of the 25-member Appointments committee, which has so far rejected the appointments of Nasser Ntege Sebaggala, Saleh Kamba, Muyanja Mbabaali and James Kakooza as ministers, 18 are NRM members with DP, UPC and FDC having one member apiece. There are also two independent MPs.