Thomas Tayebwa, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, has warned legislators and government officials not to interfere with the work of COSASE.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa has challenged legislators and other government officials to stop interfering with work being done by the Committee on Commissions, State Authorities, and State Enterprises – COSASE.
Last week, Committee Chairman Joel Ssenyonyi raised a complaint that he received a call from one government official threatening him to pull back on investigations surrounding the authenticity of credentials of the Uganda Airlines Chief Executive Officer, Jenifer Bamuturaki.
“Yesterday, I got a call from Tourism Minister Tom Butime, threatening & intimidating me over Uganda Airlines probe, bse apparently Jennifer Bamuturaki is his relative. I’ve reported this at CPS,Ref GEF 60/2022 for it to be on record. No one, I repeat, no one will cause me to back down,” Ssenyonyi told journalists last week.
With this, however, the deputy Speaker has called on all outside sources to step aside and not dictate how the Committee is doing its work. Tayeebwa said he will not allow anyone to belittle their work.
“The whole of last week the media has been awash with stories of investigations being conducted by one of our committees, which is Cosase. I have seen different reactions, some of them from members of this House; making comments that would bring disrepute the image of the House,” Mr Tayebwa told Parliament on Tuesday.
“I want to caution those interfering with the way we are doing our work as a House; calling and threatening our MPs or trying to belittle this House when conducting its duty to stop,” he added.
Tayebwa’s comments come when the Committee is still ongoing with the probe into irregularities surrounding the operations of Uganda Airlines, which commenced last week.
The Tuesday meeting between the committee and officials from Uganda Airlines to further discuss queries raised in the Auditor General’s report for the Financial Year 2020/2021, did not materialise due to Bamuturaki’s absence.
The Airline’s manager in charge of Quality Assurance, Mr Michael Kalisa, delivered a letter notifying the committee of his boss’ failure to appear, requesting to reschedule the meeting to the second week of September, as they are fixing ‘key issues’ at their office [Uganda Airlines] that cannot be postponed.
The request was, however, rejected by the committee with Ssenyonyi describing the management as ‘unserious’ for requesting an extension on the actual day the meeting was supposed to take place.
He instead issued a fresh summons for Ms Bamuturaki to appear on Wednesday without fail.
[…] Tayebwa Defends Bamuturaki Probe, Condemns Interference in COSASE Work […]
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