COVID-19 Fight: MPs Warm Up For Shs20m Each!

By Henry Mulindwa
A cash bonanza to all MPs is in the offing with each member destined to pocket Shs20m purportedly to fight COVID-19.This comes amid reports that MPs had asked government for shs50m each to fight COVID-19. The MPs reasoned that they needed this facilitation so that they could also be counted among their locals as having participated in fighting Corona virus. However, this request attracted public uproar. The president instead asked the OPM to take the lead in coordinating COVID-19 national response efforts.Now, latest information is that in the recent supplementary budget that was handled by parliament, a secret budget worth Shs20m to be given to each MP was factored in. It is this money that MPs are allegedly going to use to ‘deliver’ services to their people in their constituencies.”The MPs passed Shs20m. It is going to be given to each member to fight COVID-19″ a well placed source revealed, adding that this is partly the reason the turn up by members has reached unprecedented levels these days even when the country is facing a lockdown.Our sources said that members are now warming up for this bonanza. Parliament has 436 members. This therefore means that the tax payer is going to foot sh8.5bn.The MPs have persisted in conducting their business even after the country was out to a lockdown. Some of them have been accused of violating the SOPs as dictated by the president. The speaker Rebecca Kadaga was forced to eject some of them from the house after they violated COVID-19 SOPs.IMPACTOur sources suggested that MPs are currently facing issues in their areas. Apparently, most of them had saved their monies waiting to splash them during the primary elections but because of the current situation, voters are making frequent calls to them for contributions.Interestingly, some of the members have reportedly been facing challenges in their constituencies where voters have made it a habit to turn to the free items given by members to fight COVID-19.”The members have a tendency of putting their pictures on the COVID-19 items like water cans and soap. But because some of them have lost popularity among voters, the voters have resorted to vandalizing these items. They remove the pictures and take the cans in their houses. This is common in Busoga sub-region” sources explained.We are told out of this situation, members have now resorted to handing these items to LC1s per village so that these items can be placed in all busy village centers fpr people to wash hands.”But this is not enough. Voters are also asking for food” a source revealed.This is not the first time MPs are getting such support. In 2010 during campaigns, MPs secretly passed a supplementary in which they factored in Shs20m purportedly to monitor Naads activities in their constituencies. The money however, decompaigned many of them and most of them lost their MP seats. Similarly, government was forced to scrap the Constituency Development Fund ( CDF) to MPs after most of them abused it. One of the MPs was even charged and convicted.