Following Speaker Anita Among’s warning to legislators over missing plenary and committee sittings, Kasambya County MP, David Kabanda has proposed that legislators should be paid based on their attendance.
Kabanda, who subscribes to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party believes that the move will curb the issues of absenteeism in Parliament.
“Once our salary is determined by attendance, the House will always be full,” he said.
Earlier this week, Among told the House that her study of the attendance records for committee and House business from July 2022, showed high absenteeism of Members of Parliament.
“The money they pay us is from the taxes of the people. But when you are not in the constituency or in the House, are you representing your people? We are forced to give you warning letters,” Among said.
She tasked all committee chairpersons to present attendance lists to her office, which will be tallied with lists of MPs who regularly attend plenary sittings.
She noted that these will be used to evaluate attendance at committee meetings.
“We are going to take action! We are sorry about it but we have nothing to do about it. We are helping you as representatives of the people because tomorrow you will need to come back to this House. What will you tell the people?” Among asked.
She also urged MPs to clock in and out using the biometric systems whenever they attend plenary sittings, to account for their attendance.
