MPs renew demand for bicycles for LC1s

Parliament has tasked the government to expeditiously avail money for the procurement of bicycles to ease the work for Local Council One (LC1) chairpersons across the country.

The MPs noted that whereas LC1 chairpersons are central to enhancing security in villages and completing the decentralisation structure, the government has continued ignoring their need for bicycles to ease their work in the villages.

"These people are doing a great job serving our people but the government seems not to be bothered enough to fulfil its pledge of providing them bicycles. Unfortunately, the pressure is being mounted on us as MPs when we go back to our constituencies," Stephen Kisa (Luuka South) said on Tuesday.

Speaker Rebecca Kadaga said that the government in its plan for procurement of bicycles for the newly elected LC1 chairpersons should also factor in those that served in the positions for over 15 years but have since retired.

The Butemba County MP, Pentagon Kamusiime proposed that the government should consider tabling before Parliament a supplementary budget to specifically cater for funding the purchase of the bicycles but junior finance minister David Bahati blocked the move.

State minister for finance David Bahati during Parliament's plenary session. Photo by Kennedy Oryema

Bahati argued that whereas the provision of bicycles to LC1 chairpersons is crucial, the government cannot commit itself to fund the demand through a supplementary budget in the current financial year but pledged that it will be high on the budgeting agenda in the 2020/21 financial year.

In 2011, the government through the local government ministry released sh4.7b for the purchase of bicycles to be supplied to LC1 leaders however the procurement was plagued by scandal.

The contracted suppliers of the bicycles took the money but not a single bicycle was delivered.

During investigations into the scam that sucked in the local government permanent secretary, John Kashaka Muhanguzi, and five other officials, it was unearthed that whereas the bicycles were being sourced from India, the advance was drawn from a local bank in Uganda.

John Kashaka Muhanguzi (2nd left) and five others were convicted over the bicycle scam. File Photo

Some of the intended beneficiaries of the bicycles after holding office for more than a decade, have since been replaced in an election held in July last year.

The Bugabula South MP, Maurice Kibalya, warned that if the government does not avail the resources for the bicycles in a supplementary budget, it risks delivering them after the 2021 general elections which will be an indictment on the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) for not fulfilling its pledges.