Taking a bribe is a serious crime punishable by imprisonment of up to 10 years, or payment of a fine not exceeding Shs 6 million, or both, according to Section Two of the Prevention of Corruption Act (1970 as amended in 1998).

But the handling of a bribe case by a committee of Parliament and a May 4 letter from President Museveni to the Prime Minister, accusing civil servants of corruption, have turned the battle against this virus into a new form of entertainment.

Maverick Aruu MP, Samuel Odonga Otto, claimed in February that MPs; Ibrahim Lubega Kaddunabi (Butambala), Rose Akol Okullo (Bukedea), William Okecho (West Budama North), Florence Hashaka Kabawaza (Kamwenge), William Wopuwa (Bubulo East) and William Nsubuga (Buvuma), had been bribed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pass additional CHOGM funding.

The CHOGM budget was initially Shs 35 billion. It was revised to Shs 65 billion and later to more than Shs 117 billion.

There is actually an investigation into CHOGM spending by a parliamentary select committee chaired by Buikwe North MP, Onyango Kakoba.

Some of the MPs named by Otto were members of an adhoc committee set up by the NRM parliamentary caucus to scrutinise the request for more CHOGM funding.
The accused MPs dismissed Otto’s claims and demanded a disciplinary hearing. That is when the matter was referred to the Discipline Committee chaired by Asumani Kiyingi (Bugabula South).

But the committee hasn’t made an effort to establish whether a bribe was given or not.
It has instead become a theatre for the accused MPs and their accuser to play funny games.
A female MP calls Otto childish and the youthful MP suggests they go to a bedroom to prove he is an adult. That is how low the committee sunk last week.

Just last month, a minister in Tanzania accused of taking bribes from Britain’s largest arms manufacturer, resigned. Andrew Chenge, the infrastructure minister, quit after being accused of pocketing £1million in a £20million military radar system from BAE Systems. More than £500,000 was found in an offshore account belonging to Mr. Chenge.
A spokesman of President Jakaya Kikwete said Chenge quit because the allegations were damaging to his party and country.

Earlier in February, the Tanzanian Prime Minister, Edward Lowassa, had also resigned in similar circumstances after he was accused of involvement in a dubious contract awarded to an American energy company, Richmond.
A parliamentary select committee revealed the scandal.
If in Tanzania ministers are resigning because of bribery allegations, why are their Uganda counterparts just treating the public to entertainment, instead of seriously investigating such serious allegations?

In a May 4, 2008 letter to Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi, President Museveni complains that the political leaders are not supervising civil servants well enough, something that is breeding corruption.

The President says private inquiry has helped him establish this, pointing out that as a result of corruption, construction of a classroom or one kilometre of road costs four times more.

The President has always argued that once evidence is available, action would be taken against the corrupt. But how come Tanzanian and Rwandan investigators are finding the necessary evidence against the corrupt and their Ugandan counterparts cannot?

No easy job

As Otto himself admitted, proving his colleagues took a Shs 150m bribe is not going to be an easy job.
He could well ask Mawogola MP, Sam Kutesa, how difficult it is to prove such allegations. Kutesa, now Foreign Affairs minister, alleged in the Sixth Parliament, that Bukanga MP Nathan Byanyima had solicited a bribe from a company being investigated by a committee where he was a member.

The matter was referred to the Disciplinary Committee and Kutesa, after failing to prove his case, was dismissed for the rest of that session (parliament year).
It is very likely that Otto will end up the same way. Not because his allegations have no grain of truth but because proving them is that difficult.

More so, when the taxpayer-funded investigating agencies are not interested.
The controversial FDC MP doesn’t help his cause by behaving strangely.

First, he alleged that the MPs had been bribed to pass the Land (Amendment) Bill 2007. Then he changed his story to say that the bribe was to pass additional funding for CHOGM. That kind of inconsistency alone leaves many doubting.

Still, our sources at Parliament are of the view that bribes could have changed hands. Apparently the allegations are hinged on the report that Butambala MP Kaddunabi was found in a bank, together with some of the other accused MP, withdrawing money. According to this version of events, they all walked back to Parliament in the company of an opposition MP. That is how flimsy the ‘evidence’ is.

What makes it even more difficult to prove is that Otto was not the MP who found the NRM MPs allegedly sharing money in the bank. Neither is he the MP who reportedly heard a colleague complaining that had been given too small a share of the bribe. Thus Otto has to rely on two opposition MPs; Wadri Kasiano (Terego) and Ronald Okumu Reagan (Aswa) to help him pin the suspects.

One of the two MPs reportedly saw his NRM colleagues sharing bundles of money, while the other got a complaint from one of them.

Bribery in House

Soliciting money has become common among MPs. If you want a committee to consider your policy or budget proposals, you need to ferry it to a hotel in Entebbe or Jinja and fete them.
Although MPs are given daily subsistence allowances, line ministries are pressured to give MPs “facilitation” of about Shs 150,000 per day. The MPs even get money to attend training aimed to enhancing their skills!
Perhaps the most famous inducement Seventh Parliament legislators got was the Shs 5m each, which was understood as a bribe to get them to pass constitutional amendments, particularly the one removing presidential terms limits to enable President Museveni stay in power.

Last month, the government again gave NRM MPs Shs 500 million for “consultations” over the Land (Amendment) Bill 2007.
Therefore, as Otto showed during the comical committee sitting last week, he is unlikely to prove his allegations. But with the reputation of Parliament is in tatters after a series of bribery scandals, the public will believe the Aruu man.

Lukwago next

After Samuel Odonga Otto’s case has been concluded, the Discipline Committee will hear yet another bribery allegation case involving three opposition MPs.
Kampala Central MP Erias Lukwago alleged that his colleagues; Geoffery Ekanya (Tororo County) and Nabilah Sempala (Woman, Kampala) had been compromised by businessman Hassan Basajjabalaba during investigations into the sale of Nakasero market.

Ekanya, an FDC MP, chairs the Local Government Accounts committee which probed the suspicious sale of Nakasero market to Basajjabalaba by the Kampala City Council.
Lukwago alleges that the two FDC MPs were compromised by the businessman to produce a favourable report.
The Leader of Opposition, Prof. Morris Ogenga Latigo, attempted to mediate between them but failed.

Lukwago, a DP MP, is the Shadow Cabinet’s Attorney General while Nabilah is also a shadow minister.
Lukwago has told The Weekly Observer that his case was halted because the committee wanted to first settle Odonga Otto’s

The two bribery cases are indeed proof that something wrong is taking place in Parliament.
Many will agree that where there is smoke there is likely to be fire. And if corruption [or suspicion of it], is rife in Parliament, the body mandated to hold the executive accountable, what is it like elsewhere in government?

Matters are made worse by a President who writes to his Prime Minister helplessly lamenting about corruption. If the President is as helpless as he sounds in that letter, what about the poor Prime Minister?

semugs@ugandaobserver.com