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Hon. Abdu Katuntu
“The Prime Minister would make sure she is present with majority of the ministers from each docket, so that MPs ask questions on oversight or legislation. This would be in addition to the Prime Minister’s time already provided for every Thursday,” said Ssenyonyi.
The LOP added that concerns have often been raised by legislators over the limited time allocated to address their matters, yet they want to represent their constituents and put questions to government.
The Committee Chairperson, Hon. Abdu Katuntu, backed the proposal arguing that the Prime Minister could get overwhelmed with a lot of questions requiring sufficient time to respond to them.
“If we accumulate a number of questions, that could be about 100 written questions, how would you expect the Prime Minister to answer them in one hour?” Katuntu noted.
The Speaker, Anita Among restated the need to include the provision in the Rules of Procedure, for effective reference when the need arises.
“Much as the Speaker has the power to decide the structure of the Order Paper, let us institutionalise it so that it compels someone [minister] to be present in the House,” said Among.
The House also carried a proposal by Erute County South MP, Hon. Jonathan Odur to delete Rule 41(4) which allows the Clerk to Parliament to select 15 questions by raffle, which have been entered in the Prime Minister’s Question record book.
“The Clerk should submit all questions to the Prime Minister because this provision would be infringing on my right as a Member of Parliament to represent my people,” Odur said.
The committee report proposed an amendment to Rule 41(3), to state that, ‘a written or oral question to the Prime Minister shall be precise and concise and shall not address more than one matter of government policy or general performance of Government’.
This, Katuntu said, would discourage argumentative questions and elicit precise and concise responses from the Prime Minister.
“This will also allow for interactive debate and give more tome to oral questions during the Prime Minister’s time,” Katuntu added.
Hon. Aisha Kabanda (NUP, Butambala District Woman Representative) recommended that the Prime Minister’s time be restricted to oral questions only with written questions reserved for ministers.
She noted that the move would align with best practices in the Commonwealth Parliamentary systems.
“If the Prime Minister is unable to provide an immediate response, he or she should address the question during the next Prime Minister’s question time, and provide a written response to the member who raised the question,” Kabanda added.
Source:Parliament of Uganda