Kampala — THE NRM caucus meets today to discuss the two reports on the National Social Security Fund's (NSSF) purchase of land in Temangalo, Wakiso district, ahead of the debate in the House tomorrow.

Chief Whip Kabakumba Masiko said yesterday she would chair the meeting and that any member who boycotts it will be disciplined.

"There are many issues and NSSF is high on the agenda," she added.

The NSSF controversy was sparked off when it became known that the fund bought land from businessman Amos Nzeyi and Arma Ltd., a company linked to security minister and NRM secretary general Amama Mbabazi.

The purchase was approved by Dr. Ezra Suruma, the finance minister, who supervises the fund. NRM Members of Parliament, Wilfred Niwagaba, Okot Ogong, Hamson Obua, Amooti Otada, Henry Banyenzaki, Barnabas Tinkasimire, Theodore Ssekikubo and Sanjay Tanna took the matter to the NRM caucus, calling for Mbabazi's investigation.

On its part, Parliament ordered the committee on state enterprises to investigate if Mbabazi and Suruma used their positions to pressure NSSF To buy the land, if the sh11b price was too high, there was conflict of interest and if the ministers broke the law.

in a report to Parliament, the committee said the ministers were guilty on all the grounds. It recommended that they resign or be dismissed.

However, six out of 20 committee members disagreed with the report and issued a minority report, which absolved the ministers on all grounds.

Both reports have been presented to Parliament and debate starts tomorrow.

Speaking yesterday, Kabakumba said: "We shall discuss the report by the committee which is in two parts, the main view and the minority view."

In a meeting chaired by President Yoweri Museveni on Friday, the Cabinet rejected the majority report, saying the authors were politically motivated. Instead, it adopted the minority report.

Out of 333 MPs, 212 belong to the NRM and 36 are independent. Most independents signed an understanding with the NRM and vote with the party. The opposition has 59 MPs, while 14 are ex-officio MPs and 10 army MPs.

A Cabinet sub-committee has been put in place to fine-tune the minority report to include the interest of the workers for discussion in the NRM caucus meeting today. It comprises local government state minister Hope Mwesige, general duties minister Adolf Mwesige, lands minister Omara Atubo and deputy Attorney General Fred Ruhindi.

"It is never guaranteed that the majority report will be adopted over the minority one, just because of the numbers involved. Neither is it a given that the majority report has greater weight than the minority report," said a member of the caucus. "The mere existence of the minority report automatically undermines the credibility of the majority report.

Either report would be debated on its own merit and the decision taken by the plenary would be final, the member said. "The battlefield in this matter is three-fold: the Cabinet, the NRM caucus and the plenary of Parliament."

Another member added: "If, as expected, the NRM caucus takes the same position as Cabinet, given the overwhelming command of numbers in Parliament, this position will most probably be upheld in the plenary."

The caucus declined to take a position and decided to wait for the outcome of the committee inquiry. In a statement last week, Opposition parties urged MPs to take the side of the workers when the matter comes for debate.