By Website Writer; The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Anita Annet Among has called for an audit into the performance of Parliament’s Committee on State Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE).
Ms. Among, the Bukedea District Women representative in the 11th Parliament said the performance of the committee chaired by Nakawa West MP, Joel Ssenyonyi, a member of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) is of great concern.
“I noted yesterday that the performance of Cosase in processing the auditor general’s report 2020/2021 has been a cause of concern to this House. And failure for the committee to do its work is an indictment on the House. First on the committee then on the House. When somebody fails, you all fail and we have all failed,” the Speaker told plenary on Wednesday afternoon.
According to the Speaker, out of 107 entities probed by the auditor general, the committee only considered four entities.
“And I don’t want to say shame on us the House but shame on you Cosase. It’s you people who have failed. We have invested a lot of money in the committee but we have not got results,” she said adding that the House had six months to consider and pronounce itself on the report.
According to her, the six months have passed but the reports are not ready.
“Even if we gave you an additional one year you may not be able to finish. And based on that, we are going to adopt all the reports that are pending under Cosase because the committee headed by the Leader of Opposition has failed to produced what we expected of them but we need t help this country,” she said.
As the Speaker made her remarks, Mr. Ssenyonyi was visibly absent from the House chambers.
It should be noted that Mr. Ssenyonyi has in the recent past raised dust about Parliament’s failure to debate the reports his committee had so far handled, particularly the controversial Uganda Airlines report. He accused the Speaker of playing delaying tactics by not considering the report over unclear reasons.
Mr. Ssenyonyi also queried the motive of the speaker to meet with some of the airlines officials, especially its chief executive officer, Ms Jenifer Bamuturaki who he said had been pinned by the findings of his probe.
In a recent interview with our sister station, NTV, the director for communication and public affairs at Parliament, Mr Chris Obore, questioned Mr. Ssenyonyi’s urgency to have the report presented to the House and debated.
Other entities that COSASE has so far handled include the Uganda Railways Corporation, Uganda Land Commission and Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA).
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