We Cannot Afford Tea – Human Rights Commission Cries Out

The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) has decried the low funding they receive from the government that hinders their work. The Secretary, Margaret Ejang, said that due to budget constraints, they cannot afford tea for their staff.

We use our percolator, but we basically give staff hot water; we don’t have a supplier for tea. We do have a budget line for welfare, but this budget line has been subject to budget cuts; it isn’t seen as something that is very important.

Margaret Ejang, Secretary UHRC

In addition, Ms. Margaret Ejang confirmed that the complainants are usually refreshed by the very tight budget they have.

“For complainants, we have a very small budget; in the budget for complaints management, usually, there is a small component for refreshment, and we give them water,” Ejang added.

Margaret Ejang made this revelation as she appeared before Parliament’s Committee of Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE) alongside other UHRC officials for accountability reasons. The meeting was called as part of COSASE’s mandate to ensure government entities are being run well financially.

Margaret Ejang, Secretary UHRC

In this meeting on Friday, MPs were querying what they considered extremely low revenue collections by the UHRC. The Commission had planned to collect Shs 160 million for the 2022/2023 financial year but only collected Shs 14.4M.

However, the MPs, led by Committee Chairperson Hon. Medard Sseggona, expressed their disappointment in what they referred to as a dismal performance. The MPs wondered if the Commission didn’t withhold the relevant taxes from their numerous suppliers like the suppliers of tea.

UHRC Chairperson Summoned

While at the same meeting, the MPs issued summons to the Commission’s Chairperson Mariam Wangadya to explain reasons behind the delays to process the 1,521 human rights complaints that remained unheard by December 2023.

Ms. Wangadya was summoned because the technical members present at the meeting are not members of the Tribunal which handles these Human rights complaints.

“We gave our money to the Commission and you have no Commission without Commissioners. What happens when we examine accounts, there are issues of supervision and the Commission is equivalent to the Board; they give policy guidance,” Hon. Sseggona.

Hon. Ssegona highlighted the issue of backlog because handling these cases is the Commission’s core role.

The Committee also apologized for not communicating clearly by not specifying members that were to attend the meeting.

“Matters of policy you can handle, but those matters of statistics and Tribunal files aren’t something we think you are competent to handle. When it comes to policy issues, I think we will forgive these people not to answer them and we wait for the Commissioners to respond to them on another day,” – Hon Sseggona