The Parliament allocates to each member of Parliament 20 million Shillings (Shs) from the national budget to combat covid-19.
Members of the Ugandan Parliament are each receiving 20 million shillings, about Shs 5,053,000, to help them combat the spread of covid-19 in the country.
Rebbeca Kadaga, the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, notes that MPs must facilitate the ambulances they have handed over to the Ministry of Health.
“We have ambulances that have been requisitioned by the Ministry of Health, we own them, we maintain them, we pay the workers,” Kadaga said.
“It had become a burden for the MPs,” Kadaga said. They told her they needed some support from the committee’s budget.
“I said I don’t have a budget for this in the parliamentary budget and this is a joint campaign,” she said. ” Let’s take some money from the supplementary budget and support the MPs to make sure the ambulances are on the ground.” She suggested.
The parliament had adopted a supplementary budget of Shs 304 billion submitted by the government. This amount is to be used to finance many activities in the fight against coronavirus. The sectors concerned are health, security, local government, disaster preparedness and support to vulnerable people.
Parliament has thus used its power to make several reallocations of funds. It has allocated a total of Shs 10 billion to the parliamentary institution.
She added that legislators also need funds to raise awareness against the virus in their local languages.
However, the government has just extended the partial containment for 21 days. All public gatherings are banned to fight the coronavirus.
Gérard Rugambwa
