Uganda MPs demand ministers’ travel ban

KAMPALA – A Ugandan parliamentary panel called yesterday for a travel ban on cabinet members implicated in aa massive corruption scandal during the 2007 Kampala Commonwealth summit.

The Public Accounts Committee said top officials are evading the panel which is probing the disappearance of some $60m allocated for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).’We have summoned them and they have sent responses that they don’t want to appear,’ committee chairman and opposition politician Nandala Mafabi, said.’We want these ministers banned from travel until they have finished giving evidence,’ he added.Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa and Tourism Minister Serapio Rukundo recently skipped their scheduled appearances citing travel obligations.Mafabi also raised concern that some ministers may permanently flee Uganda to avoid giving evidence.Scope of the alleged theftTerence Naco Achia, a member of the parliamentary panel from the ruling party, backed the travel ban call.’For those we have discovered are a problem, this idea is definitely correct,’ he said.The panel has urgently demanded testimony from several cabinet members including Vice President Gilbert Bukenya and the inquiry may extend to most branches of government given the scope of the alleged theft.Uganda’s donors have threatened to withdraw or cut back assistance to the east African country unless it reduces corruption.World Bank country manager Kundhavi Kadiresan termed graft as ‘endemic’ in Uganda and cited the Commonwealth summit cash scandal as an example.- Nampa-AFP