This has been an on-going debate on whether the proposed iPad’s for Uganda’s Legislators are a necessary purchase especially in this period when teachers were on a verge of striking for a 100% salary increment. One comes to wonder where the government’s priorities lie. We saw Apple launch its latest line of iPads last night, but we doubt if the MPs will be getting these new iPads. We suspect its the 3rd generation iPad that they will be getting. According to the Daily Monitor the procurement of these tables will cost the developing nation’s taxpayers a whopping UGX 900 million ($ 357,300) each costing over UGX 2.5million ($990) .
The Daily Monitor further learnt that the iPads deal was awarded to to M/s Elite Computers (U) Ltd. The director of the
Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda Ms Cissy Kagaba, accused MPs of being “ self-centered and selfish” and turning the House into “a bottomless pit that has become a liability.”
If you cannot give teachers what rightly belongs to them and you procure luxurious iPads for MPs, how can you justify being in leadership because it [leadership] is supposed to be a sacrifice. We will not see any milestone as a result of MPs getting
iPads. Their deliverables will not improve.
The iPad idea was cooked up in August in a move to reduce expenditures on Parliament’s stationary by three quarters, One thing is for sure by mid next year you wont see any of these tablets any where, thanks to the rampant thieves in the city or even the MPs themselves giving them away, for crying out loud, dont tell me an MP cant afford an iPad.
