CSOs root for public prosecution office budget enhancement

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The Government has been urged to increase the budget for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP).

A group of six anti-corruption civil society organisations (CSOs) says ODPP's constitutional mandate is severely constrained by inadequate funding and systemic inefficiencies.

Alliance for Finance Monitoring (ACFIM) executive director Henry Muguzi said, according to the Auditor General’s Report for the Financial Year (FY) 2023/24, ODPP failed to meet its annual targets.

Henry Muguzi, the Executive Director the Alliance for Finance Monitoring addressing the media as Christine Byiringiro Program Manager at Anti- Corruption Coalition Uganda look on. (Photo by Nancy Nanyonga)

“While we commend the increased budget allocation to the Administration of Justice - rising from shillings 481.4 billion in FY2024/25 to 602.7 billion – we note that a disproportionate share of 72% is allocated to the Judiciary, while the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) receives only shillings 98.7 billion, representing 16.4%,” he said.

According to Muguzi, this imbalance hampers the prosecutorial process and weakens the integrity of the justice system.

He made the call during a joint media briefing on Friday, June 20, 2025 in Ntinda, Kampala. The event was organised by the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU), Alliance for Finance Monitoring (ACFIM), Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG), ActionAid International Uganda (AAIU), Transparency International Uganda (TIU) and Uganda Debt Network (UDN).

He stated that only 195,656 criminal cases were prosecuted against an annual target of 200,000, while only 97,993 new criminal cases were achieved by ODPP against an annual target of 120,00 cases.

He also lamented that only 61,009 cases were sanctioned for prosecution out of a targeted 80,000 cases, blaming all this on financial constraints. Muguzi said the contributing factors include weak investigations, high case dismissal rates and poor data systems.

According to Christine Byiringiro, a programme manager at ACCU, a 26% case backlog – far above the Third National Development Plan (NDPIII) target of 10% - reveals the strain on Uganda’s justice sector.

“The absence of a functional witness protection law further discourages victims and witnesses from coming forward, undermining prosecutions and consequently eroding public confidence,” she noted.

Among their key demands, the CSOs collectively call for urgent legislative action, institutional strengthening as well as fiscal and governance reforms, civic responsibility and the use of investigative journalism to expose corruption and demand accountability.

Gerald Padde Auku, the programmes manager at Transparency International Uganda (TIU), called on the Government to pass a Witness Protection Law to safeguard individuals participating in criminal and anti-corruption proceedings as witnesses.

He also demanded that the Government allocate sufficient, equitable funding to anti-corruption and prosecutorial agencies such as the Inspectorate of Government (IG) and ODPP.

The panel included Pascal Muhangi, an economist at CSBAG and Peninah Nayiga, a research fellow at Uganda Debt Network (UDN).

Muhangi said the creation of new administrative units, such as new districts, sub-counties and town councils, is going to increase public spending and put pressure on the already meagre financial resources.

Pascal Muhangi, an economists at CSBAG addressing journalists as Peninah Nayiga researcher at Uganda Debt Network looks on. (Photo by Nancy Nanyonga)

“The idea is that administrative units should be service delivery driven. In this case, we are seeing that administrative units are being politically driven. They are not creating units to offer services,” he lamented.

He believes the politicians are dividing up places to create more MPs to support a certain agenda.

“Instead of creating a new district, why don't we build more hospitals? Because that's what people want. Instead of creating a new sub-county, we can create in that same sub-county, build more health centres,” Muhangi stated.

Nayiga said the political pressure during the election season increases the financial risks and that there is a noticeable spike in the resource envelope.

“We see in financial year 2023-2024, we saw that the budget was starting at 52 trillion, but after they are proceeding that financial year 2023-2024, we saw that the budget had increased to 72 trillion, and 40% of our budget is we are borrowing,” he said. Adding that, “and we are borrowing for budget support, we are borrowing to finance the ongoing projects that the government is implementing.”