IGG network to recover stolen assets

Feb 26, 2014

The inspector generals of East African governments under their umbrella body, the East African Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (EAAACA) have established an asset recovery inter-agency network for the region to recover stolen public goods by civil servants.

By Henry Sekanjako

The inspector generals of East African governments under their umbrella body, the East African Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (EAAACA) have established an asset recovery inter-agency network for the region to recover stolen public goods by civil servants.


The network will cover all the five East African states, namely; Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi.

According to the outgoing chairperson of EAAACA, who is also Uganda’s Inspector General of Government, Irene Mulyagonja, through the network, all stolen public resources will be recovered from civil servants within the region.

“If someone steals money from Uganda and they take it to Kenya, we shall be able to recover that money using our network,” she said.

Mulyagonja made the remarks yesterday during a meeting with some of the EAC ombudsmen such as the head of the ethics and Anti-corruption Commission of Kenya, the chief ombudsman of Rwanda and the general commissioner special anti-corruption of Burundi at EAAACA’s offices in Kamwokya.

She noted that through EAAACA, they were also considering harmonising East African community criminal laws and anti-corruption laws to ease the work of fighting corruption.

“We want to ensure that if we are tackling corruption, we use the same laws so that if one is caught in Uganda or Kenya smuggling goods it is the same law that is applied,” added Mulyagonja.

The head of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission of Kenya, also the new chairperson EAAACA, Mumo Matemu, expressed optimism that the network, if well implemented, would check on the increasing levels of corruption within the region.
 

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