IGG rallies public to join the fight against corruption in public institutions as Uganda prepares to mark the international anti-corruption day this Saturday.

       Beti Kamya - Inspector of gov't

The inspector general of government has called upon the general public to play a central role in the bid to reduce the rate at which corruption spreads across the country in the government institutions.

Betty kamya revealed this while addressing the press at Uganda media centre yesterday ahead of the commemoration of this year’s Anti-corruption day, which will be marked on 9th December under the theme “strengthening partnerships in the war against corruption.”

Kamya expressed her concerns over the poor service delivery being offered to the citizens of this country which she attributes to the corrupt government officials since the citizens duly fulfil their obligation of paying their taxes in time.

“fellow Ugandans, there are only about 350,000 Ugandans employed by the government and out of those, about 10% have access to the public resources. This means that about 45 million Ugandans suffer poverty, diseases and poor services by the government because of only 35,000 greedy and selfish government officials.” She said

It’s from this context, that Kamya came out to urge Ugandans to participate and report to them all cases involving the corrupt officials in the different government institutions.

“its not acceptable that 45 million Ugandans can suffer because of just 35,000 unscrupulous government officials who steal money. We must isolate and fight them because 35,000 people cannot defeat 45 million people.” Said the IGG

She however, advised the whistle blowers to be very careful while sharing their intelligence to the responsible offices charged with the mandate of fighting corruption in the country, stressing that it could put their lives in danger if the information leaks to the culprits.

She noted the challenge of lack of sufficient evidence to execute some corruption related cases in some of the government institutions forexample in cases where the entire officials are involved in the chain of corruption which gives them hard time to trace for the responsible people.

It’s from this that she revealed that the only way to try and fight such cases is by life style audits which is a partnership between anti corruption agents and the general public who she says should act as their watchdogs because they are the ones living closer to these corrupt officials and therefore are aware of most of their investments.

Since the office of the director of public prosecutions is mandated to prosecute the cases of corruption, it purged government of 55 corrupt officials in the F/Y 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. These were convicted of corruption cases and barred from holding public offices for a period of 10 years in accordance with section 46 of the Anti-corruption Act.

In the same vain, she further commended the work being executed by the state house Anti-corruption unit in the fight against corruption, the most recent being the iron sheets scandal where ministers were involved.

“SHACU has recently been involved in investigations into diversion of iron sheets meant to reform cattle rustling youths in Karamoja, where recoveries of UGX. 2.9 billion was made and upto UGX. 3.4 billion saved from potential loss. The unit has also carried out investigations in the areas of education, recruitment, parish development model, land, environment corruption and fraud against investors among others.” She noted

According to the inspector of government’s office, they have investigated and concluded 27 high cases of grand and syndicate corruption allegations in government institutions. Additionally, 1342 other corruption cases were investigated and concluded, with 174 being in MDAs while 1168 were in local governments. From the above investigations,

-Over UGX. 30 billion was recommended for recovery from corrupt officials of which UGX. 18.188 billion was recovered to the consolidated fund.

-119 public officials were dismissed, 14 reprimanded, 10 interdicted and various administrative actions taken on 39 others.

-The IG prosecuted and concluded 104 corruption cases resulting into 43 convictions which represents a rate of 41% over the past 2 years.

The IGG however, urged the public to beware of cone men who are falsely extorting money from the public through using her mobile number, stressing that her phone has been hacked by unidentified group of people and the case has already been taken up by the office of the director of public prosecutions(DPP) for investigations.

Story by: derrick kanalo