Maria Kiwanuka is Our Hope

Muniini K. Mulera

30 May 2011

opinion

Dear Tingasiga:

Early analyses of President Yoweri Museveni’s nominees to his Cabinet have focused on the usual theme of regional, religious, ethnic and gender balancing.

We await analyses that focus on the skills and intellectual abilities, track records and personal integrity of the men and women who will assist the President run the country over the next five years.

I am fully aware of the balancing act that is necessitated by Uganda’s politics of blackmail.

Politician X will claim that his group has been “marginalised,” meaning that he expected to be appointed to Cabinet. Cosmetics and illusions of inclusion trump serious reflection on the quality of the folks that are being entrusted with power and responsibility.

The need to please various claimants to ministerial entitlement results in a bloated Cabinet that may well cost the taxpayer more than the expected returns on that investment. And so Ugandans are saddled with the hefty cost of a Cabinet that includes some people who ought to have retired from public service many years ago and others who ought to be doing time in prison for their corruption and abuse of office.

However, the President has also nominated to Cabinet some of the brightest and most able minds. One of them, Maria Kiwana Kiwanuka, the nominee for minister of finance and economic planning, is one of the brightest women of our generation with great expertise and extensive experience in local and international business and finance that should stand her in good stead. We expect great things from her.

For starters, we hope that Maria will quickly acquire the nickname of “Ms. No” as she goes about refusing to spend money that the country does not have, and as she reins in the extravagant lifestyles of the country’s rulers. She does not need to be reminded that the ministry of finance exists to serve the economic interests of the country and to provide funds for the citizens in a logical, responsible, equitable and sustainable manner.

We pray that every time she drives through the slums and villages of Uganda, she will remember that the country’s money belongs as much to the well-off citizens as to those who have been described by some as “dregs and abandoned wretches”.

One of Maria’s immediate opportunities to distinguish herself as a serious trustee of the public purse will be to veto the attempts by her government colleagues to feed their insatiable appetite for luxury. Members of Parliament have reportedly demanded Shs50 million each as an advance on their salaries and a tax break, courtesy of taxpayers. Some of those who are making these outrageous demands include members of the FDC who have been in the vanguard of the walk-to-work demonstrations against inflation.

Maria should call them out on their arrogant deception. They berate the President and his government for being insensitive to the needs and struggles of the impoverished citizens, while at the same time they seek to fleece the same citizens! She should remind Parliament, especially the FDC MPs, that the country’s limited resources must be channelled to meeting the needs of every citizen, especially the less fortunate at this time of serious economic hardship.

To be sure, the new minister of finance should say no to the plan to award the parliamentary Speaker and Deputy Speaker with brand new Mercedes Benz S500, each at a cost of Shs420m. The country cannot afford them. She should insist that the vehicles that have been vacated by the last parliament’s speaker and his deputy, which I understand are in perfectly good condition, should continue to serve the new pair. In any case, what is that has changed in the new Speaker’s transportation needs? Has the vehicle which served her as Deputy Speaker until a couple of weeks ago suddenly become too small or uncomfortable?

Likewise, Maria should reject the demand by MPs for brand new cars paid for by the taxpayers. They already earn salaries and benefits that far, far exceed those of some of the country’s top and essential professionals such as doctors, teachers, nurses, managers and accountants.

That the MPs, including the opposition party members, are demanding brand new Toyota Land Cruisers at a cost of Shs189 million each is a reminder of how much they are consumed by greed and disregard for the realities of their poverty-stricken constituents.

The least that these overpaid MPs should do is go to the banks like everyone else and seek loans to finance their lifestyles. These examples are symptomatic of the larger picture of a country whose taxpayers are being milked dry by an enormous patronage system. Our hope is that when Maria prepares her first national budget, she will do well to remind Parliament that the salaries of the 375 MPs, at Shs20 million each per month exceed the budgets of entire ministries and regions. She should challenge them to make a business case for continuing such extravagance in a country whose majority continue to labour in or near poverty and lack the most basic social services. She should highlight, in easily accessible language and figures, the total cost of keeping so-called presidential advisers and other parasites living in great comfort.

Naturally, the new Leader of Opposition will stand to challenge her budget proposals. Maria will do well to remind him that his salary and perks disqualify him from moralizing about the government’s profligate spending. She should ask him to explain to Ugandans why the Leader of Opposition should enjoy the free services of a bodyguard, a gardener, a cook and a house guard in addition to two cars and a salary of Shs15 million per month plus other allowances.

We have come to dread the daily reports that remind us of the moral deficit that Uganda has become. We are almost inured to such stories and shrug our shoulders when the usual suspects lead the list of those who, working behind closed doors, award themselves wads of cash from the public purse.

Yet we live with faint hope that the free ride on the backs of the taxpayers will come to an end. While it is an extremely uphill task that we are thrusting upon Maria Kiwanuka, we are counting on her to be the catalyst for a changed attitude to the management and use of public funds. We wish her success and the very best in a job we know she deserves and is highly qualified to perform with distinction.

Dr Mulera is a consultant pediatrician and neonatologist

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