IGG recovers a paltry Shs7bn out of Shs10trn from corrupt gov’t officials
Kamya revealed that out of the 32,605 public servants required to declare their wealth as per the Leadership Code Conduct, only 26,541 were obliged by the requirement and of those, 311 servant's wealth was investigated.
The Inspectorate of Government (IGG) Betty Kamya has disclosed that from January 2022 to June 2023, they managed to recover only Shs7.99 billion from corrupt officials.
This amount falls significantly short of the annual estimate of Shs10 trillion lost to corruption in Uganda, as indicated in a recent report by the IGG office.
In the global corruption perception index, Uganda is positioned at 142 out of 180 countries, surpassing only the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which holds the 166th position.
In comparison within the East African Community, Burundi ranks at 171. Meanwhile, Rwanda stands at 54, Tanzania at 94, and Kenya at 123.
Kamya revealed that out of the 32,605 public servants required to declare their wealth as per the Leadership Code Conduct, only 26,541 were obliged by the requirement and of those, 311 servant’s wealth was investigated.
She further disclosed that in response to the President’s letter cautioning against openly declaring soldiers’ wealth through the IGG due to concerns about national security, a new platform is under development.
This platform will facilitate soldiers in declaring their assets through the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).
“We are planning to create a portal, just the same as the one we have but manage through the CMI which means that the soldiers will have to declare their assets through CMI & we would have to access them through CMI, it isn’t in conflict of what is happening, but it is also mindful of other aspects of administration of this country. The President didn’t say that soldiers shouldn’t declare but they should declare through CMI,” said Kamya.
Esther Afoyachan, the Commissioner of Parliament who received the report on behalf of Speaker Anita Annet Among asked the IGG to focus on the corruption taking place in the Parish Development Model.
Afoyachan said if this isn’t curbed, the intention of bringing the subsistence farmers into the money economy may not be achieved.
“A lot of money is going into PDM, but there is a lot of siphoning. Eventually, what is reaching the beneficiaries is a fraction of what it should have been. You will be shocked at the things happening there and yet you are aware that almost our entire budget is going towards PDM. I would like our people’s lives to improve as long as PDM is there,” said Afoyachan.
However, despite the dismal performance of the Inspectorate, Kamya urged Ugandans to own the war against corruption, instead of leaving it for the government because the corruption vice denies them the quality of services that they deserve.
