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ARUA - Journalists under the West Nile Press Association have pledged to expose corrupt officials.

The journalists pledged after the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity permanent secretary Alex. B.Okello asked the media fraternity to weed out all the corrupt officials by reporting responsibly.

“Ensure that you change the attitude of the public to understand that corruption is criminal, corruption lowers the development of the country,” he said.

Okello added that corruption is responsible for the under-development of the country, therefore, there is a need for people to work so that they can earn.

“Poor attitude towards work is making people become thieves because there is this belief that the state actors can easily divert what is meant for service delivery in their own personal accounts," he said during the meeting with journalists in Arua city on Thursday.

West Nile region is not an exception when it comes to corruption incidents. For instance, in November 2018, then Northern Uganda Social Action Fund desk officer Arua district Paul Edobo took off with shillings 500 million, which was meant to pay for the seed supplies under the programme.

Okello said corruption is responsible for the under-development of the country, therefore, there is a need for people to work so that they can earn. (Credit: Edna Piyic)

Corruption cases in the region

There are also a number of corruption incidents that occurred in some seed schools such as Pawor in Madi Okollo district whose infrastructures are not commensurate to the shillings 1.4 billion released for their construction.

According to Frederick Dramadri, a journalist, there is a need to focus on the policies that apprehend the corrupt culprits so that those scenarios are not repeated.

“These policies affect majorly the state actors that misappropriate funds meant for services of Ugandans. Therefore, there is a need to implement the policies," he said.

Challenges faced by Journalists

However, Dramari said many media houses have their purposes and in-house policies. Therefore, according to him, exposing corruption may be tricky, especially through those that are owned by politicians.

He said they plan to sensitise the public on the dangers of corruption and the reporting channels.

Judith Atizuyo, a journalist, said most journalists face intimidation while following stories on corruption.

“Most of us are intimidated while we follow the state actors involved in these corruption cases," she said.

Atizuyo asked other journalists to continue following stories that pin the corrupt officials so that the cases are reduced in the region.