Wednesday 13 February 2013

Is Speak Rebecca Kadaga sinking into oblivion: Kadaga stops probe into OPM cash scam: I pity Pentecostal pastors who think Kadaga will pass the Anti-Homosexuality bill.



FIRST READ:

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Ugandan Pentecostals give Speaker Kagaga a heroine welcome: Speaker Kadaga promises to revive shelved gay Bill

 

Kadaga stops probe into OPM cash scam


By YASIIN MUGERWA

Posted  Wednesday, February 13  2013 at  02:00

In Summary

Stop! Citing complaint from the DPP, Speaker Kadaga directs PAC to stop probe into the theft of money in Prime Minister’s Office.

A watchdog committee of Parliament was stunned yesterday, after it emerged that Speaker Rebecca Kadaga had stopped its inquiry into the theft of Sh50 billion in foreign aid channelled through the Office of the Prime Minister.

After spending more than three months on the investigation, Ms Kadaga, on February 8, wrote to the Public Accounts Committee chairman, Mr Kassiano Wadri, explaining that that the Rules of Procedure do not permit Parliament to handle issues, if proceedings have begun in courts of law. “I am, therefore, of the opinion that the continuation of the investigations will prejudice the fair determination of the cases before court,” she said. “I, therefore, direct that you stop the investigations until such a time when the cases have been concluded or as otherwise further directed.”

Ms Kadaga said she had received a complaint from the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Richard Butera, who stated that the PAC investigations into the OPM scam were “highly prejudicial” to the court process. The Daily Monitor has seen a copy of the letter from Mr Butera, dated February 6.

Contradiction

However, Ms Kadaga’s ruling contradicts another on a similar matter made by Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanyah last year. When Mr Kassiano brought the matter to the floor of Parliament, Mr Oulanyah ruled that the sub-judice rule only applies to the proceedings in the chamber and not the committee business.

While Ms Kadaga cited Rule 64 (2), (3) and (5), which bars members from discussing matters before courts of law, the Shadow Attorney General, Mr Abdu Katuntu, told Parliament yesterday that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and any law that is inconsistent with its provisions is of no force or effect.

Mr Katuntu cited Article 164 of the Constitution, which says all accounting officers are accountable to Parliament. “Rules of Procedure cannot limit the constitutional mandate of Parliament,” Mr Katuntu said. “The Speaker should use her discretion powers, but the sub-judice rule is not cast in stone. It’s wrong to stop the inquiry into the abuse of funds in the OPM; we are not subordinate to the DPP.”

 Pentecostal pasotrs give Kadaga a heroic welcome from Canada where he blasted the Canadian foreign minister over Uganda's stance on gays 


The investigation headed by Terego MP Kassiano Wadri, ended yesterday amid the undertones of what infuriated PAC members called “mafia” politics. Mr Wadri, who expressed dissatisfaction with the Speaker’s directive, met the PAC to inform members of the developments. “The whole action is a betrayal. We have spent more than three moths reading documents, and preparing to ask the right questions, only to be told that the inquiry has been stopped,” Mr Wadri said. Addressing journalists on what he called “shocking news”, Mr Wadri added: “I can’t rule out undue interference.

In November last year, we were confronted by the sub-judice rule and when we contacted the Speaker, we were allowed to proceed.” According to Mr Wadri, the PAC investigation started after the suspended Principal Accountant, Mr Geoffrey Kazinda, had already appeared in court. He said the committee had more or less completed the investigations into the loss of more than Shs50b meant for post- war recovery efforts in northern Uganda and Karamoja sub-region.


In his letter to the Speaker, DPP Butera said the witnesses appearing before the PAC were giving the same evidence that would be adduced in court. The DPP said having the accused give their defence to the PAC would greatly affect the case.

“I am informed by Prison authorities that the same committee has summoned accused No. 1 in the same case, Kazinda, to also appear before the committee. I write to request you, Right Hon. Speaker, to guide the committee not to continue proceedings that are clearly prejudicial to our ongoing court criminal proceedings. It should be left to the courts to determine instead of having parallel hearings,” Mr Butera said, adding that the fight against corruption would only succeed if the various arms of government coordinate their operations.




Kadaga blocks MPs’ Kazinda probe


Tuesday, 12 February 2013 23:39

Written by DEO WALUSIMBI

The three-month parliamentary investigation into the swindle of Shs 50bn from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has been stopped abruptly by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga.

Kadaga ordered the Public Accounts committee to stop the investigations until the parallel court cases have been disposed of. Last year, PAC was called into action after a report by the Auditor General found that billions of donor funds meant for the Peace, Recovery and Development Programme (PRDP) in northern Uganda had been mismanaged by officials in the OPM.




The committee last week sought to meet the Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi, and the Minister of Karamoja Affairs, Janet Museveni, whose names were cited in the Auditor General’s report. However, both officials separately informed PAC that they would not be available until later.

It is not clear whether the halting of the proceedings has anything to do with the summoning of Mbabazi and the First Lady, but the timing will inevitably fan speculation in that direction.

According to the PAC chairperson and Terego MP, Kasiano Wadri (FDC), the speaker wrote to him urging his committee to stop the probe.

“I got a surprise yesterday when I came to Parliament. I received a letter from the office of the speaker addressed to me as the chairman of PAC, to my vice and the deputy speaker to the effect that we should halt our probe into the issues of financial impropriety in the Office of the Prime Minister,” Wadri said.



“Her decision was premised on a letter she received from the DPP to the effect that the witnesses who are appearing before us are either state witnesses in courts of law or accused persons and further revelations to our committee may jeopardize the ongoing cases in court,” he said, adding that the DPP asked the speaker to halt the committee proceedings.

“The Right Hon speaker has advised that further witnesses before us will be prejudicial to the cases going on in court and we have been advised to refer to rule 64 of our Rules of Procedure,” Wadri said.

Rule 64 states that any matter which is before any competent courts of law should not be discussed by Parliament or committees of Parliament.

“It is on that basis that we have decided to listen to the legal counsel given to us by the speaker…because we listen and abide by her rulings,” Wadri said.

On February 7, the Director of Public Prosecutions Richard Butera asked Kadaga to step in.

“I write to request you, Right Hon speaker, to guide the committee not to continue proceedings that are clearly prejudicial to our ongoing court criminal proceedings,” he wrote. “It should be left to court to determine the cases instead of having parallel hearings.”

Not over yet

Wadri says, however, that it’s not over yet.

“The proceedings of PAC over this issue will continue and we shall start from where we stopped. Those we have not touched, we shall come to them because we can’t just waste taxpayers’ money for three months and stop at that, we must bring it to the logical conclusion,” he said.

Wadri added he was not really surprised by the development but wondered, however, why the state had chosen to stop them now.

“We have spent a longer time on this but the state chose to come and stop us. Is it because certain personalities should have appeared before us last week that the state goes to consult? Those are questions which everybody should ask and be able to answer…,” Wadri told The Observer in an interview.

PAC was supposed to interface with Mbabazi and Mrs Museveni to enrich the investigation. However, a group of MPs protested the move to summon the two officials, saying they had nothing to do with the investigation.

The committee had also written to the Prisons authorities summoning Geoffrey Kazinda, the interdicted OPM principal accountant, seen as the principal suspect in the fraud.