KAMPALA–Parliament’s Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee has drafted a Shs 715 million bill to facilitate its consultative meetings on the Constitution Amendment Bill, which if passed, will scrap the age limit for presidential candidates.
According to the draft plan which PML Daily has seen, the committee is seeking approval of the funds to cater for the field trips, international travels and retreat.
At least Shs227.25 million will be spent on internal trips, classified as field trips to the North, West, Central, East and West Nile regions. For the 5 MPs, 3 staff, 3 police officers and one driver who will be constituted on each of the five teams to be dispatched to the regions, the committee will spend Shs 45.45 million.
The committee has also planned to travel to three countries, which remain unnamed, to carry out benchmarking on the bill. A total of Shs 133 million has been earmarked for the trips to each of the three countries to cater for per diem, air tickets and visas for five MPs and two members of staff.
Each return air ticket for an MP costs Shs7.2 million, bringing the total to Shs36 million. The two members of staff will use Shs 11.2 million in total for their air tickets.
For the five days out of the country, the MPs will receive Shs 2.59 million each day while staff will receive Shs 1.9 million. The committee will spend Shs 64.8 million for the MPs while Shs 19.4 million will be spent on staff.
The Parliamentary Commission is yet to approve the funds. Committee chairperson and West Budama South MP, Jacob Oboth Oboth said the committee will start holding sittings on October 31st, where they will meet different stakeholders, including clergy, NGOs, former presidential candidates and political parties, among others.
