Kadaga reveals her main focus as CPA president

COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE

KAMPALA - The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has revealed that her main focus as president of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) will be to push for changing the legal status of the association so that all members have an equal stake in it.

During the General Assembly of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association last Saturday, Kadaga was approved as the new president of the Association.

Kadaga's term as president will go on up to 2021 during the next Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference which will take place in Canada.  

"I will mainly focus on changing the status of the CPA. CPA started as a charitable organization registered in Britain. It is governed by the laws of England. All the 9 regions contribute money to it. Africa contributes 35% of the CPA budget. But if it dissolved, the money would remain within Britain," Kadaga told journalists yesterday at parliament. 

The Speaker further argued that currently, the CPA secretariat jobs are dominated by UK residents because the laws don't allow those from outside to get the jobs.

"That is why we want to change the legal status of the association to an international association in which all members have an equal stake," Kadaga explained. 

As part of the move to have member countries of the commonwealth share the benefits equitably, there was a proposal during the General Assembly have the Association's constitution changed so that the position of the Secretary-General is rotational from country to country.

Some delegates complained that people from Canada and Britain have dominated the position of Secretary-General which is the most powerful position in the day-to-day running of the activities of the association.

But after resistance from some delegates who opposed the proposal, the General Assembly resolved that matter be referred to the working committees so that they could guide the next General Assembly which will be in 2021.

Kadaga also promised to the CPA platform and other international platforms to market Uganda as a unique tourism destination with exceptional tourism attractions.  

Speaking about the benefits Uganda got in hosting the high-level international conference, Kadaga informed journalists that the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference delegates got so much excited about the tourism sites they had been taken to that some requested to be taken back to some of the sites.

"In fact, even after the conference has ended, some foreign delegates have decided to remain in Uganda for some days so that they can tour various tourism sites," Kadaga stated.

 The Speaker also noted that Ugandans who sell food, hotel owners, and those who were selling arts and crafts greatly benefited from the conference. Kadaga said one of the ladies who had got 1000 dollars from the crafts she had sold to the delegates thanked her and told her she had never touched dollars.

Kadaga commended all the media houses in the country for having promoted the event and captured the deliberations well.

Talking about post-legislation scrutiny as one of the recommendations from the conference, Kadaga said they were going to aggressively implement the post-legislation scrutiny.

 "Many countries do serious post-legislation scrutiny to ensure the laws and other decisions are implemented. We are also going to do it because we have not been doing it."