The Whistleblowers Bill which seeks to enable the public to disclose information on corrupt officials in the public and private sectors continued to split legislators as numerous concerns that are not addressed by the bill triggered the disagreements.

Key concerns in Ethics Minister Dr.James Nsaba Buturo's Bill were inclusion of Resident District Commissioners [RDCs] as part of the group, to whom disclosures can be made; how the whistleblowers will gain from the practice; lack of clear cut safeguards to protect the whistleblowers and conflict of interest among others.

Failure to strike a balance on the contentious issues in the Bill, forced Deputy Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to send MPs back home to mull over the matter.

Gov’t begins Student’s loan scheme
Government has set up a "Student Loan Scheme" to make Tertiary Education more inclusive by advancing loans to needy students in local governments and enhance development of staff in public universities for masters and doctoral studies, according to Education Minister Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire.  

The Ministry of Education and Sports has created a secretariat to manage about shs. 10b for the next three financial years, to implement the scheme, which was mulled back in the 90’s.

A small number of 2010-2011 academic year university entrants will be the pioneer beneficiaries.

Ministries declared poor spenders
Health, Works, Education, Agriculture, Water & Environment and other government agencies failed to spend a total of sh 555b in the first half of 2009/10 financial year as a result of poor absorption, according to revelations from a recent half year Budget Performance Review by the Ministry of Finance .

The poor expenditure was attributed to poor planning in procurement processes by the Ministries, and departments that failed to effectively harmonize procurement plans with annual quarterly work plans to effectively manage quarterly cash releases.

Many institutions budgeted for and received funds during the first and second quarter for activities to be implemented in the third quarter.

MUK VC continue to overhaul
As part of his promise to improve the image and quality of education at Makerere University [MUK], Prof.Baryamureeba has mooted several restructuring changes which will include the laying off of Dozens of part-time lecturers as the University slashes its courses in a bid to cut costs.

Courses will be cut by up to 40 per cent by May and the reforms will take effect at the start of the next academic year, in August.

In other changes, a number of courses with similar units will be merged and others dropped or added to meet market demands.

Speaker pre-empts opposition to Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Opposition activists to the Anti-Homosexual Bill got a thorough pounding from speaker of Parliament, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi when he stated this week that the Bill would not be withdrawn.

The speaker made his message clear to the anti-gay activists when he told them: "We shall consider your views, but we cannot withdraw the Bill".

Landslide devastates Bududa District
A landslide struck Bududa District Monday night following a heavy downpour in Namesi village on the slopes of Mt. Elgon claiming an instant 80 lives that were mostly covered by the rubbles that did not also save animals and crops.

The far reaching effects of the catastrophe have been partly attributed to people living dangerously close to the mountain. blog comments powered by Disqus

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