THE NATIONAL CONSULTATIVE FORUM (NCF) AND INTER PARTY ORGANIZATION FOR DIALOGUE (IPOD)

The National Consultative Forum (NCF), the umbrella organization with representation from all registered political parties and organizations in the country, and the Inter Party Organization for Dialogue (IPOD), which united parties with representatives in Parliament have clashed for Government funding.

The NCF has a total of 32 members while IPOD has a membership of only five political parties namely; Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Democratic Party (DP) and Justice Forum (JEEMA).

It should be noted that members of IPOD also subscribe to NCF.

Government allocates money to all parties with representatives in Parliament depending on the number of MPs the party has in the House.

While having an engagement with the Electoral Commission at NCF offices in Kampala on Thursday, NCF clashed with IPOD over Government funding.

Gideon Tugume of Forum for Integrity in Leadership (FIL), conveyed his disappointment with IPOD, and wondered why the latter “only targets cash from Government,” and forgets about NCF.

“You have representatives in the Parliament of Uganda but you are still political parties. You make membership of the National Consultative Forum (NCF). Why do you reach there, and form your own small group of which you keep on demanding money from Government, and sharing among yourselves forgetting the rest of the parties? That is a concern. Have you tried to reach out to your Members of Parliament, and tell them to fight for political parties? No,” he charged.

Tugume noted that whenever there is a debate about the 20 billion shillings that Government gives to political parties with representatives in Parliament, the beneficiaries keep silent, and always don’t want to address the matter.

“Actually, when we try to talk, you will fight to ensure that there is nothing that changes that status quo. So, it is as if you formed your own thing where you are eating and you don’t want the rest to be near. And when you come here in our forum, even the small thing that comes to the forum, you also want it.”

“During COVID-19, we were all grounded, and what they did under IPOD, they went and requested for money through the Electoral Commission, and National Consultative Forum was not aware. The money was released to you, you enjoyed yourselves. We went into elections together, we also had candidates but we couldn’t even manage.”

Furthermore, Tugume accused IPOD of jeopardizing NCF efforts to meet President Museveni.

“How can members of National Consultative Forum say they want to meet the President, and you (IPOD) people sit on that?”

He reminded Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuuzi who represented NCF Chairman and Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, that NCF is a legally mandated Forum that should be respected.

“How can you bring the President to meet only Mao (Nobert Mao) in Kololo when all these members (of NCF) are there. You can imagine you were also giving a bad image to the country that the President (Museveni) is only meeting President Mao and President of UPC. We have a stake in this country, and we should share the resources of this country in equal terms or at least somewhere nearer.”

Other members of NCF that do not have representatives in Parliament welcomed Tugume’s submission.

However, Gerald Siranda, the Secretary General of the Democratic Party (DP) hit back at Tugume saying that Government only supports political parties that have representation in Parliament.

Siranda also said that political parties do not meet President Museveni because he is the President. He clarified that political parties meet the President because he is the current Chairman of the IPOD Summit.

Recently, IPOD held its Summit at Kololo under the chairmanship of President Museveni. The Summit meeting was however boycotted by FDC and JEEMA.

Meanwhile, the FDC National Chairman Wasswa Birigwa suggested that there should be law that can guarantee Government funding to all registered political parties.

“We need to work on the law to make sure that all those who are registered parties receive a percentage of it. I think that is the best way to go. If it is not under the law, the EC (Electoral Commission) will never give us that money for those parties that are not in Parliament,” he said.

“It is up to the parties themselves to say, well, we are going to help our brothers and sisters if we were to receive something. But it is not something you force. It is something that should be coming from us, then we can help each other,” he added.

Birigwa said that most importantly, political parties especially those opposing the current NRM Government should work together to achieve their objective.

He dismissed allegations that his FDC party was among the beneficiaries of the alleged 20 billion COVID-19 relief fund to IPOD.

“As far as IPOD is concerned, I know FDC does not receive anything in cash. We have not been helped. We are training our people, printing manifesto and things like that. But when I hear that so much money is flying around, I don’t know. As far as discussing the 20 billion, I think that was an opportunity for IPOD members to talk to Museveni and say hey, ‘we need more money to support other parties.”

In response, the Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuuzi who represented NCF Chairman and Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, told NCF members that the concerns were noted, and would be addressed.

“We have registered the concerns, and we shall sit down and decide how they will be addressed,” said Kafuuzi.