Parliament’s Gender Committee has questioned the Equal Opportunities Commission’s decision to spend Shs2.5 billion annually on office space at Kingdom Kampala while its government-owned premises in Bugolobi remain vacant.
Committee chairperson Laura Kanushu said the annual bill translates into more than Shs200 million a month, an expense she described as difficult to justify amid funding shortages across government institutions.
The committee inspected the Bugolobi premises after the commission reportedly said the buildings were dilapidated and unsuitable for occupation.
“In my view, and I think in the view of the committee, this place is not dilapidated. All it needs is renovation,” Kanushu said.
“Rather than pay Shs2.5 billion for a year, even Shs1 billion is enough to renovate this place.”
Kanushu, the national representative for female persons with disabilities, said Parliament had previously recommended that money intended for rent be redirected towards renovating the Bugolobi offices.
“I remember I was on the Budget Committee in the 11th Parliament, and the recommendation was: ‘We will not allow you to go back to Kingdom Kampala. Instead, we are giving you that money to renovate your premises,’” she said. “How that changed along the way, I also don’t know.”
The lawmaker said the expenditure highlighted weaknesses in government supervision and financial management at a time when public agencies routinely complain of inadequate funding.
“This is the wastage of government resources that the people of Uganda are crying about,” Kanushu said.
“We keep crying that there is no money. Money is there, and it is being wasted.”
She contrasted the rent expenditure with conditions observed during a committee visit to a remand home, where she said children lacked adequate legal assistance, transport and other essential facilities.
“Those children don’t even have lawyers. They don’t even have facilities, and we are spending Shs200 million per month on rent. How does that make sense?” she asked.
The committee also found vehicles that had reportedly remained unused at the Bugolobi premises for between two and three years. Kanushu questioned why the vehicles had not been disposed of in accordance with government procedures.
“Our question to government is: who is supervising these institutions? Who is sleeping on their job?” she said.
The Equal Opportunities Commission had not yet publicly responded to the committee’s findings or explained why the earlier recommendation to renovate the Bugolobi premises was not implemented.
