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KAMPALA - The Inspectorate of Government (IG) has recommended recovery of sh17b to the consolidated fund from persons found culpable in various corruption offenses.

According to the IG annual report released last week for the 2022/23 fiscal year, a total of 251 administrative sanctions were issued against Public Officials and 26 Officials were to be prosecuted for their involvement in corrupt tendencies.

The Inspectorate recovered assets (cash and physical property) worth sh14.8b from the corrupt.

The IG prosecuted and concluded 55 cases in the courts of law, the report signed by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Kamya indicated. 

A total of 26 convictions were realized leading to a conviction rate of 47.3%. Of the 55 concluded cases, 9 were acquitted, 18 were withdrawn for various reasons such as settling the matter out of court, and two (2) were dismissed. 

From the withdrawn cases, the affected persons committed to refunding sh912m to the consolidated fund. 

The IG also prosecuted and concluded 28 cases at the Leadership Code Tribunal (LCT), registering 24 convictions (85.7%. conviction rate).

The IG investigated and concluded 852 corruption-related cases of which 18 were high profile in nature while 829 were other (not high profile) corruption cases.

A total of 251 administrative sanctions were issued against Public Officials and 26 Officials were to be prosecuted for their involvement in corrupt tendencies.

During the financial year under review, the IG received 2,377 complaints concerning corruption, Ombudsman, and the Leadership Code of Conduct.

Of the 2,377 complaints, 1260 were registered from Head Office while 1,117 were registered across the IG 16 regional offices. 91.8% of these were sanctioned for investigations, 2.7%were referred to other authorities, and 0.1% were declined because they did not merit into investigable cases.

By the end of the financial year, decisions were yet to be taken on 5.4% of the complaints that had been received during the year.

61 public officials face prosecution 

During the same period, the IG verified declarations of 574 Public Officials out of a targeted 600 for the financial year.

This represents a success rate of 95.6%. A total of 213 investigations into breaches of the Leadership Code Act were concluded, of which 190 were related to non-declarations while 23 were false declarations. 

The report indicates that as a result of the verifications and investigations, 61 Public Officials were recommended for prosecution at the Leadership Code Tribunal.

The IG resolved 498 ombudsman complaints comprising of 77 in Ministries, Departments, and Agencies and 421 in Local Governments.

The complaints were majorly related to employment disputes, delayed services, non-payment of salaries and pensions, and mismanagement among others. 

From the Ombudsman investigations, 892 citizens were able to directly access various services including access to payments totaling to sh4b delayed salaries. and pensions

Abuse of office tops cases 

Abuse of office tops corruption investigated cases in Local Government, a new report issued by the Inspectorate of Government (IG) has shown.

Cases investigated in local government 

A total of 324 of abuse of office offences were investigated in local governments representing 47% of the total cases.

Embezzlement comes second with 70 cases representing 10%, followed by misappropriation of funds with 58 cases representing 8%. Other cases in descending order were forgery with 48 cases representing 7%, causing financial loss, uttering false documents, extortion, nepotism, false accounting, and false claims.

IG mandate 

Chapter 13, Article 225 of the Constitution, the IG is mandated to promote and foster strict adherence to the rule of law and principles of natural justice in administration, to eliminate and foster the elimination of corruption, abuse of authority and of public office, to promote fair, efficient and good governance in public offices, to supervise the enforcement of the Leadership Code Act, to investigate any act, omission, advice, decision or recommendation by a public officer or any other authority to which this article applies, taken, made, given or done in exercise of administrative functions, and to stimulate public awareness about the values of constitutionalism in general.
Article 231 (1), the IG must submit bi-annual performance reports to Parliament with copies to HE The President of the Republic of Uganda.