MPs push for transparency in the decisions of the Appointments Committee

Members of Parliament from across the political divide are pushing for an amendment in the parliament rules of procedure to allow transparency and involvement of the entire parliament in the decisions made by the Appointments Committee.

The parliament appointments committee is responsible for vetting and approving persons appointed by the president like ministers,  the Electoral Commission commissioners, judges, ambassadors, the Inspector General of Police, and many others.

The committee is composed of the Speaker, the Leader of Opposition, party whips, one army MP, one workers' MP, 13 selected MPs from the ruling party and two selected MPs from the leading opposition party.

On many occasions there have been protests from some legislators and members of the general public on presidential appointees approved by Parliament's Appointments Committee which they thought never met the standard needed.

The committee, which is chaired by the Speaker of Parliament, has however in the past rejected many people the president had appointed as ministers.

The parliament rules and privileges committee, whose leaders Ongalo Obote and Abas Agaba are NRM members, has proposed that the sittings of the appointment committee should be open to the media and other legislators who may want to attend.

Presenting this proposal on Tuesday, the committee chairman Obote stated that as committee members, they believe the amendment would open a window for public scrutiny into the decisions of the appointments committee.

Backing the committee proposal, Buhweju County MP Francis Mwijuckye (FDC), who is one of the members of the current appointments committee, said, "I support the proposal by the committee chairman that whatever happens in the committee should be open to the public because we represent Ugandans."

Mwijuckye informed the house that from their recent benchmarking trip, they were impressed to realize that in Kenya the appointments committee makes reports to the entire parliament for approval.

In the current arrangement of Uganda's rules of procedure, the appointments committee makes decisions without subjecting their decisions to the approval of the entire parliament. 

Busongola County North William Musabe Nzoghu said, "This is a people's parliament and we should therefore be open to public scrutiny in whatever we do for accountability. There are many nominees who have been approved to the dissatisfaction of other people. When something is closed, people peddle rumours and they will be believed. In the past, there have been allegations of bribery. Let us amend so that the appointment committee presents reports and make the decision together as the entire parliament."

Bukooli County Central MP Solomon Silwany, who is also the deputy chairman of the NRM caucus, opposed the proposal.

"I support maintaining the status quo because the appointments committee handles very sensitive documents. It is very unfair for every report to be handled openly even to the media. We trust the people who sit on the committee," Silwany argued.

But Kira County MP and opposition chief whip Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda quickly rose up and rejected Silwany's reasoning, saying, "The approval of the Vice President and the Prime Minister is done by the house. When the president dies, the Vice President takes over. I don't know of any other appointment that is more sensitive than that of the Vice President. And, are you saying this house cannot handle sensitive issues."

The Kabula County MP James Kakooza opposed the amendment, arguing since the public officials vetted by the committee serve the entire public, it is better they are vetted secretly so that a MPs who would have to criticize them in the plenary are saved from being denied services.

Sensing that the matter had increasingly become very contentious, the Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah deferred making a decision on it.