Good Lord, protect us from our dear MPs

SIR—I suggest that every constituency be given a block grant. It is from that grant that MPs should earn their emoluments. This will ensure accountability to the grassroot electorate. At the same time, it will curb the shark mentality and irrational demands for ridiculous remuneration. every small interest group wants to become a constituency in order to get an MP and every MP wants to earn the whole world and still argue that what they get is small change! This is in spite of the obscene poverty around them. LC committees from LC3 to LC5 should be in charge of administering the grants and monitoring accountability. The clerk to parliament should regularly send performance appraisal reports to constituencies for approval of payment. Otherwise the business of someone using the electorate as ladders to get to parliament and then discard them will never end. This is because the MPs hold both the knife and the yam. They know that their constituents have no say over their benefits. To crown it all, it is they who decide what they will earn! Uganda would be a very united country if all MPs unanimously agreed on national issues as they did about their salary. May the good Lord protect us from our MPs. Ngaya bugaya Kampala -------------------- SIR—As chief executive, President Museveni overruled the MPs’ decision on the sale of UCB. But the obscene salaries they awarded themselves were not a problem! Kellen Acol Kampala