Kampala — WHAT are the views of the Government and the opposition on the topic of the week? Sunday Vision pits opposition columnist Wafula Oguttu against the Government representative, Ofwono Opondo.

Wafula Oguttu

The Temangalo-NSSF land saga is not about to end. The last time I was in Bugiri, peasants referred to the new local government tax as "Temangalo tax". The saga is seen by the public as a deal by corrupt NRM government officials using their power to loot from the public. The temangalo saga has exposed the highest form of abuse of office and influence-peddling. unfortunately they have been supported by the highest political office in the land.

Temangalo has also shown that some NRM leaders who feel they are very powerful or are close to the Presidency have lost the sense of shame. They are arrogant and have no regard and respect for other Ugandans.

Even after being caught in wrongdoing like in the Temangalo case, they will still behave as if they have a right to commit crimes. Call it impunity. If there was still some self-pride and any sense of shame in them, the Temangalo dealers would have apologised to Ugandans and resigned their positions.

Temangalo was a carefully planned raid on workers' savings by a network of powerful friends and business partners to save their private company from going under. Anybody who cares about workers' pension savings or hates corruption and abuse of office should be angry at Temangalo. Surprisingly, the workers themselves seem to be missing in action after the apparent betrayal by some of their Trade Union leaders who now seem to have jumped in bed with the Temangalo cabal.

I read the so-called minority report by six members of the investigation committee of Parliament and I felt very sad. The indefensible things those being investigated said to the committee in their defence are the same ones those six MPs shamelessly regurgitated without any tactic.

I will not be surprised if it is confirmed later that, actually, this particular report was written outside Parliament by or with the influence of the cabal. Indeed, we may not even expect much from the majority report since the powers that be are bent on manipulating and managing the final outcome of the two reports.

The minority report authors are repeating the wrongdoers' irrational arguments that Temangalo was an investment, not procurement. Yes, it will be an investment when the 5,000 residential units are in place. But before we reach there, there must be procurements starting with land.

I sympathise with the NSSF managing director. I do not think that an MD in his right thinking frame of mind and with freedom to decide could have signed a sale agreement, processed payments and actually paid out sh11b on the same day. Never mind that he had even been coerced to deposit half of the money to 'big fish's' bank account even before the sale agreement was concluded. This is by the same organisation that takes ages to process payments of workers' pensions.

Temangalo has divided the Government and the NRM. What should be of great concern to Ugandans is the fact that a camp of some top government leaders have the audacity to deploy state machinery and resources to save the those who openly used their offices for selfish interests.

The writer is Forum for Democratic Change spokesperson

Ofwono Opondo

THE politically tainted parliamentary committee inquiry into the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) purchase of land in Temangalo from security minister Amama Mbabazi and businessman Amos Nzeyi has been completed. Unfortunately, contrary to our yearning for respectable procedures under the rule of law, a small band of MPs seems to drag the country towards legislative tyranny, which must be rejected.

As anticipated, there is a majority and minority report.

Six MPs have dissented on the conduct, methods, some findings and recommendations of the majority who demonstrated bias to fix or embarrass Mbabazi, Suruma and NSSF's management. Suruma and the NSSF are just sidekicks, while Mbabazi is the 'real target', as seen from their relentless aggressions targeting him.

The report claims that finance minister Suruma and Mbabazi peddled political influence and had conflict of interest in the deal and consequently recommended they "take responsibility," under the Leadership Code of Conduct, which means they resign or be fired. It is a flawed recommendation because a parliamentary committee does not enforce the code.

From the start, the accusers flouted every known rule of natural justice to accord parties impartial and fair hearing. They abandoned a cardinal principle in our legal system that he who alleges must prove, and an accused person remains innocent until proved otherwise.

The MPs, who were the accusers, became the investigators, prosecutors, judges and jury and maneuvered every step to ensure that they find Mbabazi and Suruma 'guilty'.

The NRM caucus and Parliament should debate the report primarily to expose its flaws, shallowness, bias, and political mischief.

NRM MPs should throw out the report because it is essentially meant to embarrass the Government. The two senior ministers, Mbabazi and Suruma, are not known to be corrupt and would not certainly be involved in such a financial scam. The architects of these allegations and authors of the majority report are selfish political conspirators whose motive is to show that NRM is rotten.

When the framers of the Constitution granted Parliament powers to oversee public affairs through routine investigations, they never anticipated or expected MPs to use politics to settle political scores.

Mbabazi and Suruma's elaborate explanations should have been trusted by the committee as sincere, accurate, factual and truthful, especially in the absence of any other contrary evidence, except Chandi Jamwa's. The testimony in camera, which was immediately relayed to the media by some committee members, was hearsay. The majority based on this evidence from an unreliable witness who should have been charged with perjury for lying on oath twice.

Mbabazi explained that he never personally participated in the process since he had granted Nzeyi powers of attorney to deal with NSSF. Indeed Suruma, NSSF board and management testified that at no time did they meet or discuss the deal with Mbabazi, and there was no contrary evidence. The finding of influence peddling should be expunged.

The writer is National Resistance Movement deputy spokesperson