As the Country struggles with poverty and abuse of human rights and freedoms and other social problems, Ugandan Members of Parliament have been assured of free iPads, puportedly to help them in the execution of their duties.
Teachers and other civil servants are crying for salary increaments but government says there is no money to pay those salaries.
| Ugandan Taxpayers are going to lose close to shs.1 billion to have these sophisticated gadgets bought for their MPs. |
This deal however has not come well with members of the Civil Society Organisations and legislators who say Parliament has many things to deal with in this country and have referred to them as a “pack of self-seekers”.
To many, this is indirect corruption.
The cost of the deal to purchase the iPads is close to shs.1 billion and this will be incurred by the Ugandan tax payer.
One MP asserted "I don’t know why the Commission is buying iPads for us, if the issue is saving the costs for printing, as members we can afford to buy our own iPads instead of burdening the taxpayers,"
"By the time a member is elected to Parliament, he or she should have the capacity to own a computer or an iPad. Our image as parliamentarians is so bad out there because of this kind of attitude," added the MP.
The Contract to purchase the iPads has reportedly been awarded to M/s Elite Computers (U) Ltd.
Early this week, Makerere University was closed after the University staff went on strike over failure by the government to bend to their demand for a 100% salary increament, saying the country has no money. Primary and Secondary teachers have also been involved in strikes over low pay.
Each iPad is estimated to cost the taxpayer more than Shs.2.5 million. A primary school teacher earns about Shs260,000 per month. This means that each iPad for an MP can pay about 10 primary school teachers for a month.
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