The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Anita Among has expressed dismay over the continued absence of Ministers in the August House which makes many plenary questions raised go unanswered.
Among expressed her anger after seeing the entire front seat where Ministers sit totally empty yet there was an important issue of security being discussed by Members and the House wanted to hear from the Minister responsible who was not available.
“Members although we are busy and observing the SOPs we can not have a front seat empty! It’s really unacceptable and shameful to us and I don’t know what the appointing authority thinks of us when he sees this because we have so many of these backbenchers who wanted to be here. I’m expressing my disappointment because it’s so bad,” Among said.
The vice of Ministers to miss plenaries is not a new one because even in the last Parliament it’s one of the biggest challenges that the former Speaker Rebecca Kadaga faced and she openly rebuked Ministers who only attended because they had to present reports to the House.
Last year in October, Kadaga was too disappointed to the extent that she directed the then Prime Minister to invoke Rule 113 (2) of the Parliament Rules of Procedure to ensure attendance of ministers in all sittings of the House.
“We have noted that the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Ministers have been continuously absent for several sittings of this House. This is a direct breach of rules 42 and 113 of the Rules of Procedure,” said Kadaga last year.
She added that the absence of ministers had limited effective discharge of parliamentary duties and also affected the image of the House in the eyes of the public.
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