Investigations crucial to IGG not surveys
Nov 24, 2008
I envision an awards ceremony where the Inspector General of Government (IGG) rewards the most honest institutions in this country. The ceremony would be presided over by the IGG herself. When the emcee announces the silver medal winner, Justice Faith Mwondha would smile and give herself an award.
By Denis Jjuuko
I envision an awards ceremony where the Inspector General of Government (IGG) rewards the most honest institutions in this country. The ceremony would be presided over by the IGG herself. When the emcee announces the silver medal winner, Justice Faith Mwondha would smile and give herself an award.
That is the dilemma with the public perceptions survey carried out by the IGG where her institution was ranked second. How can such a survey be trusted? If you moved around the country asking housewives who they think are corrupt, they would automatically mention the likes of Umeme yet the most corrupt officials are left scot-free.
If the IGG wanted to know who are the most corrupt, she would have carried out investigations as opposed to public perception surveys.
The IGG has no role involving herself in public perception surveys, she should just investigate. The tax payers money should not be wasted on conducting public perceptions about corruption and yet this money could have been used to provide and improve healthcare and other services.
It would have been better for the IGG to excuse her organisation from a survey she was presiding over because she cannot objectively do her job investigating an organisation in which she is involved. How come the winner in the last survey, Bank of Uganda, does not even appear anywhere in the media reports?
What the IGG should have done was to measure how much money has been released to these institutions against what has been delivered. They would then find out how much has been lost through corruption. The Uganda Debt Network, under Zie Gariyo, used to do this. The IGG can pick a leaf.
As Principle Judge James Ogoola said at a media dialogue at Hotel Africana a day after the release of the report, the public is the one awarding the bribes to the Police, the Judiciary officials and fake electricians commonly known as kamyufus.
The Ugandan public is so corrupt that if you got a top job at a public institution and left after few years without being regarded rich, your peers would call you stupid. Regions lobby the President to appoint “their sons†to juicy government positions so that they can “eat†which means being corrupt.
Unless we looked at corruption as a moral issue, the IGG’s report will always remain just a report that makes a few newspaper headlines. The IGG survey left the big fish and looked at the hungry policeman who are being offered chai (tea) that they cannot refuse.
The people who cry the loudest about corruption in the Police force are the ones who offer bribes when caught in the act. A great number of Ugandans do not even want to pay for the power they consume. They always ask kamyufus to connect them when Umeme cuts them off and then claim that these people are corrupt.
When a child cries a lot, the parent offers candy provided it stops crying. If a pupil in Primary Six wants to become head prefect, he asks for “logistics†from the parents who gladly contribute, therefore corruption is a moral issue that needs everybody’s effort.
Public surveys by the IGG have not helped in the last 10 years and they will not help in the next 10. She should focus on investigations on what has been lost through corruption.
The writer is a
media consultant
I envision an awards ceremony where the Inspector General of Government (IGG) rewards the most honest institutions in this country. The ceremony would be presided over by the IGG herself. When the emcee announces the silver medal winner, Justice Faith Mwondha would smile and give herself an award.
That is the dilemma with the public perceptions survey carried out by the IGG where her institution was ranked second. How can such a survey be trusted? If you moved around the country asking housewives who they think are corrupt, they would automatically mention the likes of Umeme yet the most corrupt officials are left scot-free.
If the IGG wanted to know who are the most corrupt, she would have carried out investigations as opposed to public perception surveys.
The IGG has no role involving herself in public perception surveys, she should just investigate. The tax payers money should not be wasted on conducting public perceptions about corruption and yet this money could have been used to provide and improve healthcare and other services.
It would have been better for the IGG to excuse her organisation from a survey she was presiding over because she cannot objectively do her job investigating an organisation in which she is involved. How come the winner in the last survey, Bank of Uganda, does not even appear anywhere in the media reports?
What the IGG should have done was to measure how much money has been released to these institutions against what has been delivered. They would then find out how much has been lost through corruption. The Uganda Debt Network, under Zie Gariyo, used to do this. The IGG can pick a leaf.
As Principle Judge James Ogoola said at a media dialogue at Hotel Africana a day after the release of the report, the public is the one awarding the bribes to the Police, the Judiciary officials and fake electricians commonly known as kamyufus.
The Ugandan public is so corrupt that if you got a top job at a public institution and left after few years without being regarded rich, your peers would call you stupid. Regions lobby the President to appoint “their sons†to juicy government positions so that they can “eat†which means being corrupt.
Unless we looked at corruption as a moral issue, the IGG’s report will always remain just a report that makes a few newspaper headlines. The IGG survey left the big fish and looked at the hungry policeman who are being offered chai (tea) that they cannot refuse.
The people who cry the loudest about corruption in the Police force are the ones who offer bribes when caught in the act. A great number of Ugandans do not even want to pay for the power they consume. They always ask kamyufus to connect them when Umeme cuts them off and then claim that these people are corrupt.
When a child cries a lot, the parent offers candy provided it stops crying. If a pupil in Primary Six wants to become head prefect, he asks for “logistics†from the parents who gladly contribute, therefore corruption is a moral issue that needs everybody’s effort.
Public surveys by the IGG have not helped in the last 10 years and they will not help in the next 10. She should focus on investigations on what has been lost through corruption.
The writer is a
media consultant