The Speaker of Parliament, Anita Annet Among, has asked Milly Babalanda, the Minister of Presidency to explain the criteria used in the selection and appointment of the recent Assistant Resident District Commissioners (RDCs). This comes after the Opposition raised concern about the questionable character of some of the people who have been appointed to these positions.
“Let us get the report and if it is true the money was approved, then how much was it? It still brings you to the calibre of people that the Leader of Opposition is talking about. Do you just bring in people who just go on rampage, like the one, I don’t want to mention the name,” Among said.
This followed a concern raised by Joel Ssenyonyi, the Leader of Opposition, who wondered why government that has been spearheading the abolishing & merger of some agencies back to Ministries would be the same regime to appoint over 300 Assistant RDCs, wondering. He wondered what roles the new team will do that isn’t being done by the RDCs and Deputy RDCs.
“Government has been pushing us on rationalization saying, we need to rationalize on entities send them back to the Ministries so that we can save taxpayers’ money and cut down on government expenditure, and that is a compelling argument.
But while we are rationalizing, here then comes another huge Government expenditure because you can’t preach water and then drink wine. What role are Assistant RDCs going to play that RDCs and Deputy RDCs aren’t playing? We need to have a good understanding of that,” Ssenyonyi said.
“The Minister for the Presidency has said in her communication that the Assistant RDCs are going to promote patriotism, carry out mobilization, and fight corruption. We need to be helped to understand whether the Assistant RDCs are now taking over the work of the Inspectorate of Government because there seems to be a lot of duplication. Also, if you are saying they are meant to carry out mobilization, for what exactly? Is it mobilization for the NRM, Parliament, for what exactly?” he added.
However, David Bahati, the Minister of State for Industry, called out Ssenyonyi for feigning ignorance about the appointment of Assistant RDCs, yet he was part of the team at Parliament that approved funds for the appointment of Assistant RDCs in the current 2023/24 budget, and the Minister of Presidency was merely taking action.
“I remember in this budget, we approved money for Assistant RDCs and the Minister has taken action, and then you come back as if you weren’t involved, you were involved in approving,” said Bahati.
The Government Chief Whip, Hamson Obua, asked the Speaker to give the government more time to bring a statement to Parliament in order to explain the matter.
He said: “I wish to request to give time to the Minister of Presidency to come and provide clarification on the appointment of the Assistant Resident District Commissioners and Assistant Resident City Commissioners, their roles and responsibilities, and why the NRM thought it wise that we need to empower more those offices that do exist in our districts.”