The Chairman of Parliament’s COSASE who doubles as Bugweri County MP, Abdul Katuntu has hit back at his critics who accuse him and his team of failing to produce probe reports, saying the results of their work are there for everyone to see.
Katuntu has in recent weeks faced intense criticism from sections within his FDC party including his due successor on the committee, MP Mubarak Munyagwa, for what they say is incompetence and pending reports during his two and half tenure as COSASE chairman.
Last year, Katuntu was dropped as head of Parliament’s Committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) by the FDC President, Patrick Amuriat and replaced with Kawempe South MP, Munyagwa. The dropping of Katuntu was viewed by many as a punishment for his support in 2017 of Amuriat’s contender, Mugisha Muntu.
Last week, Munyagwa branded Kantuntu and his COSASE team as incompetent adding that all they have done is excite the public but with no substantial conclusive reports on the investigations they have undertaken.
“You open up an investigation, you excite the public, you set everybody into anxiety at the end of the day, no report is issued,” Munyagwa said on Friday, citing the incident in which COSASE was investigating Bank of Uganda for overpriced ball pens.
On his part, Rubaga North MP, Moses Kasibante accused Katuntu of jumping onto the Bank of Uganda special audit leaving a lot of crucial business pending.
“Ugandans are mainly focusing on BOU probe but there are a number of pending reports on several investigations that we had opened. These include; UBC, NAADs, National Medical Stores, REA, UEDCL,” Kasibante said.
“We embarked on this special probe of BOU having not finished what we were handling and all these reports are still pending,” Kasibante said.
However, Katuntu told reporters at Parliament that all these accusations are unfounded given the fact that his committee has presented a number of reports which have been adopted by the House.
“Are you aware that we produced a report on UNRA? Aren’t you aware that we produced a report on National Forest Authority, UBC, National Housing Corporation? Aren’t you aware we produced a report on the Shs 6bn oil handshake? What can I do?” Katuntu wondered.
He added, “The reports are there, they were adopted by the House. You people were there, you are the witnesses and yet you are asking me that question”.
Katuntu explained that when a report is produced, it is laid on the floor and either adopted by the House along with its recommendations or not.
“How could we have recovered money from the Chinese without a report? How could we have recovered land worth USD10M of UBC. Aren’t you aware we even laid the land title on the floor of the House?” the Bugweri MP further said.