Uganda: Parliament's accountability committees

The accountability committees

Parliament's committees page names the Public Accounts Committee on Local Governments, the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises, and the Budget Committee among its committees ¹. In House debate the Speaker referred to COSASE as a public accounts committee, chaired at the time by the Leader of the Opposition ². On 18 January 2023 the committee chair, Joel Ssenyonyi, presented a report on the Uganda National Roads Authority ².

The six-month rule

On 12 October 2023 the Chair told the House that Article 163(5) of the Constitution requires Parliament to debate, consider and take appropriate action on reports of the Auditor-General within six months. The Chair said the deadline given to accountability committees was 10 October 2023 and had passed ³.

On 18 January 2023 the Speaker said COSASE had considered four of the 107 entities audited by the Auditor-General and that the six months had passed. The House adopted the pending COSASE reports that day ².

How the government responds

The reply comes as a Treasury Memorandum. On 9 July 2019 the Minister of State for Finance (Planning), David Bahati, laid a Treasury Memorandum on the House resolutions on the Public Accounts Committee report on the Auditor General's report for FY 2014/15. The plenary summary describes it as providing actions taken by government on the resolutions of the House. The Speaker referred it to the Public Accounts Committee ⁴. On 11 July 2019 he laid another on Public Accounts Committee resolutions on entities with unqualified opinions for FY 2014/15 ⁴.

On 18 January 2023 the Speaker said adopted reports would be handed to the finance ministry for a Treasury Memorandum and asked the Government Chief Whip to present the pending memorandum ². On 12 October 2023 the Chair said accountability committees would handle the Treasury Memoranda, which record action taken on those reports ³.

Where to find documents

• Committees page on the Parliament website ¹.
• Hansard, the Official Report, held on Parliament's document system, such as the sitting of 18 January 2023 ².
• Plenary summaries, which record papers laid such as Treasury Memoranda ⁴.

Records on this site

This site's Uganda record covers COSASE recommendations. It follows the method in How to track a recommendation.