KAMPALA, October 4, 2024 – Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among has urged the Inspectorate of Government [IG] to increase public awareness campaigns in the fight against corruption in the country.
Among urged the IG to create friendship with the citizens of the country to facilitate the smooth and easy gathering of vital information on the corrupt.
“I know you are creating awareness to the public about corruption, misuse of government funds, but I want you to increase [on awareness], create friendship with these people [the public]. When you create friendship with these people, they will be able to tell you so and so took this and that will be a starting point,” she said.
Among said this while receiving bi-annual reports of the Inspectorate of Government for the period covering July – December 2023 and January – June 2024 from the Inspector General of Government [IGG], Beti Kamya on Thursday.
Article 231 [1] of the Constitution requires the IGG to submit to Parliament at least once every six months, a report on the performance of its functions and make recommendations for the efficient performance of public institutions.
The Speaker commended the IGG for their dedication and consistency in complying with the requirements of the law. She tendered Parliament’s commitment to supporting the inspectorate to improve their budget and efficiency, and the need to transform their work into digital capabilities.
She added: “I recognise the critical and ever-increasing need for the IGG in terms of budgetary requirements. I have seen that you are still in the analogue era; it would be good if you went digital for you to do an audit trail,” she said adding that, ’as Parliament, we will continue to do oversight on you, legislation and most importantly, we will do appropriation so that you are able to get what will enable you do the work.”
Pursuant to Article 231 [3] of the Constitution, Among said the IGG bi-annual performance reports will be laid on the Floor of Parliament next Thursday and referred to the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for scrutiny.
On her part, Kamya said that for the period covering July – December 2023 and January -June 2024, the IG recovered assets worth Shs 8 billion, concluded 1,778 investigations and 63 prosecution cases, caused the conviction of 37 people, conducted 802 corruption-related investigations and inspected over 1,000 projects.
“It is evident that there was an increase in the number of complaints received by the IG, number of investigations concluded, funds ordered for recovery and an improvement in the conviction rate,” Kamya said, attributing this success to improvements in internal processes such as prosecution led investigations and increased citizen’s engagement.
Kamya mentioned inadequate funding, case backlogs, analogue systems and high staff turnover due to low remuneration as some of the major challenges impeding the inspectorate’s capacity to effectively implement its mandate.
She said there are over 5,000 cases that have not yet been investigated. “Government should consider increasing the IG budget for operations, new vehicles and equipment, the fifth National Integrity Survey, and staff training and recruitment,” Kamya said.
In her report, Kamya revealed that the IG, in its preliminary findings, had confirmed widespread corruption in recruitment processes in government following a recent IG – led research on the cost and extent of corruption by district service commissions. She said the final report will soon be made public.
According to a recent IG report, the total cost of corruption in Uganda is estimated to be Shs 9.144 trillion per year which is equivalent to 44 percent of total government revenue in 2019.
Ugandans recently demonstrated against rampant corruption in government offices, including parliament, although some of the demonstrators were arrested by the police and arraigned in courts of law for allegedly holding illegal demonstrations.
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