Newly appointed Committee Chairpersons in a group photo with the Deputy Speaker/Courtesy photo
Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa has said Parliament can only regain the trust from the public only if the newly appointed Committee Chairperson conduct their duties with integrity and transparency.
He made the remarks during the induction of the new Committee Chairpersons, where he also warned the new Chairpersons against conducting meetings with a certain narrative, during live media coverage, only for the report findings to take a different direction, saying it is such incidences that cause mistrust among members of the public.
“I request you, let us do everything in the open… we have improved a lot, but you see, with the advent of social media, we move as open books. Even among you, something you will discuss in confidence, someone will bring it out. So with the advent of social media, let us be more open and transparent, there is nothing we hide in this parliament. Let us be more open as much as we can. We shouldn’t have any in-house issues to discuss with the technical people. The in-house issues should be for the Committee alone, without Government representatives. Because that is where people go out and allege that they were strangling me and they need money,” said Tayebwa.
He also urged the Committee Chairpersons not to create a hostile environment while interfacing with witnesses, saying he received several complaints from Ministers, during the recent retreat at the National Leadership Training Institute in Kyankwazi, of MPs harassing them during meetings.
“I received a few complaints from Ministers when I was in Kyankwanzi, we shared, let us know that these Ministers are our colleagues, let us not appear like Parliament is a torture chamber, people are scared of coming but let them know when they come, they will have to answer, if there are issues to answer,” said Tayebwa.
He also urged all Committees to ensure that all meetings are held within the precinct of Parliament, in order to avoid allegations of bribery, brought against MPs by Accounting Officers of Government agencies when they meet at the various entities.
“We are going to facilitate you, we don’t want a situation where we are running to entities to facilitate us. Because for us whereas we were taking it in good faith, the same Accounting Officers were using it against us. We thought it was an interaction, we were engaging, but someone goes and says, they were putting us on a rock, that we must put them in a workshop and make them sleep in Serena in a workshop, but these people didn’t ask you,” said Tayebwa.
He added: “So let us try our level best to have these meetings here in parliament, let the technical officers come here, let us scrutinize each and everything in the open, because we are dealing with state matters, I don’t want to be hiding.”