Following a petition filed to constitutional court by a concerned citizen Twaha Sanywa challenging government’s decision to procure cars worth 150 million to every member of the 10th Parliament, the Attorney General of Government has today come up and defended the arrangement that will cost the tax payer up to Shs. 64Billion.
Appearing before the Constitutional Court’s Justice Richard Buteera, Senior State Attorney Gorreth Arinaitwe challenged the petitioner’s “failure to provide any special circumstances through which issuing this amount of money to MPs would affect him.”
The State Attorney asked court to dismiss the application with costs for lack of merit and strong reasons on which court can base its decision to block government from releasing the said funds.
Arinaitwe based her submission on an affidavit sworn by the clerk to parliament Jane Kibirige, who clarified that such privileges and benefits enjoyed by MPs are provided for under the constitution.
Kibirige added that if court made a finding that the money was erroneously given to MPs it could order for the refund of this money from individual MPs who are direct beneficiaries.
This was strongly challenged by Twaha’s lawyer Shaban who described this as a very hard step to recover money from the consolidated fund where it will have been withdrawn without following the required steps.
Sanywa wants court to stop the car purchase privilege to MPs saying it places them at a preferential treatment against other Government employees in the Judiciary and Executive arms who perform their duties in public vehicles.
Justice Buteera will announce his ruling in this matter on 13th/October 2016.