Taxpayers ought to demand accountability from their leaders

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 | Posted by The Razor Newspaper

Recently, the media has been awash with stories that portray our leaders as insensitive. These include parliament absolving senior ministers implicated in the Chogm scandal, creation of new ministries, spending shillings 1.7 trillion to buy fighter jets without approval of Parliament and the shilling 3billion to be spent on the swearing-in ceremony for the president, inter alia.The Independent last year reported that Uganda has the third largest cabinet in the world after Kenya and North Korea. Yet Uganda is a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPIC). So, why the craze for creating new ministries; new districts and new constituencies, a situation that inexorably increases the costs of public administration? As we talk now, the ninth parliament will have 375 members majority of whom will merely be listening and voting posts only to draw salaries at the end of the month.
I have also read that the greater Bushenyi wants ministers appointed from each district. Before Bushenyi was split into five districts, we had four ministers and a Supreme Court judge. Did that transform the lives of the people of Bushenyi? It’s debatable. In fact, only one Member of Parliament who incidentally is a backbencher has done something tangible through an NGO known as Integrated Community Based Initiatives (ICOBI).
We’ve had a minister for ages in my constituency but the state of our roads is decrepit; our health centres hardly have drugs and our university graduates languish on the streets for ages. So, what does it benefit a university graduate who has been on the street for the past ten years to have a minister from his constituency? What does it benefit a pregnant woman who risks a miscarriage because of poor roads? What does it benefit students who cannot attain university education because of exorbitant fees?Does President Museveni think it is creating multiple districts and ministries that will enable him realise his “prosperity for all” pledge?It’s imprudent for the president to pander to the whims of some people and create numerous administrative entities which only help tofleece taxpayers.Blatant abuse of taxpayers’ money is deplorable.
Hardly two months after the general elections, Ugandansare yet to realise whether theirleaders are interested in improving their lives.Poverty is excruciating; commodity prices have skyrocketed; and the future seems bleak for very many. Ironically, while the voters are wailing in misery, hopelessness, normlessness and frustration the political elites are basking in grandeur. Why does the country have to spend shillings 3billion on a one day event – swearing in of the president? How much did it cost the nation in 1986 and what’s so unique today? What do taxpayers gain when colossal sums of money are spent on non-productive ventures?
As a human rights defender, I am deeply concerned that our people are dying out of neglect; that civil servants earn a miserable pay; that higher education has become a preserve of the rich but most importantly I feel incensed that the government is not bothered about job creation yet it spends huge sums of money in not so useful ministries; districts and so forth.
The government has performed disappointingly on the provision of positive rights [which to me are the mostimportant for they address bread and butter issues]purely because of profligacy. Uganda has enough to satisfy our needs but not to satisfy all our greed. The only means through which government can account to the taxpayers is provision of services and not the proliferation of districts and ministries for political expediency and promotion of patronage. I make a clarion call to Ugandan taxpayers to demand accountability from their leaders.
VINCENT NUWAGABA
is a political scientist cum human rights defender
vnuwagaba@gmail.com