Mal-administration undermining war on corruption - IGG

Aug 16, 2019

Strategic partnerships involving government, anti-corruption crusaders, development partners, and the citizens, should be the lead driver in the war against corruption

CORRUPTION

KAMPALA - The Deputy Inspector General of Government (IGG), George Bamugemereire has lashed at administrators at different levels of leadership over failure to ensure effective implementation of Government projects.



According to Bamugemereire, this has left many of the projects vulnerable to mismanagement resulting into government losing billions of money in shoddy work and other corruption tendencies.

Bamugemereire made the remarks while addressing anti-corruption activists during the launch of an anti-corruption project in Kampala on Thursday.

Dubbed "strengthening partnership for anti-corruption responsiveness and citizen engagement (SPARC)" the project is coordinated by the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU) supported by Democratic Governance Facility (DFG).  It aims at collaborating efforts in the renewed commitment to fight corruption.

"Many administrators in different government, departments and agencies have failed to put in place effective monitoring and implementing mechanisms of different government projects. This is a big problem in dealing with corruption," he said.

Bamugemereire used the occasion to reiterate the government's commitment to fighting corruption to the activists. 

"We have for long been accused of only dealing with low profile cases. But I want to assure you that our emphasis has now been put on high impact cases," he emphasized.

He stressed that the Directorate of Special Investigations set up by the IGG to deal with the high impact cases was doing a great job.

"We have also established automated system; very many people are now able to register their declarations or complaints online and this has partly eliminated human interference in dealing with corruption," he disclosed.

He added: " If everyone is able to shun corruption, the life of Ugandans will be better."

Reporting that Uganda every year registers over 1800 petty cases of corruption; Bamugemereire disclosed that strategic partnerships involving government, anti-corruption crusaders, development partners, and the citizens, should be the lead driver in the war against corruption.

"Civil society organisations your support should involve educating citizens on the evils of corruption and how to fight them," he appealed.

He tasked the citizens to take it upon themselves to follow-up with the projects implemented by the government in their respective areas to foster accountability.

The information about the projects being implemented in their respective areas according to Bamugemereire can be accessed through the government e-portal, established as a convergence of information from the government ministries departments and agencies.

 he anticorruption activists posing for a picture with the deputy  eorge amugemereire the function The anti-corruption activists posing for a picture with the deputy IGG, George Bamugemereire the function

 
Marlon Agaba, the head of programmes at ACCU, insisted that there is a need to strengthen the weak accounting institutions in dealing with the root causes of corruption in the country.

He reported that the project targets to reach out to over five million people in over 13 districts in the next three years. 

Agaba revealed that despite the fact that several anti-corruption bodies such as the IGG, State House Anti-Corruption Unit, Financial Intelligence Authority,  Auditor General among others; patronage and lack of political will were still evidently undermining the war on corruption.

Tina Holtgaard Oulie, Second Secretary at Norwegian Embassy, who represented the DGF re-echoed the appeal by the activists of a need to address challenges that hinder effective accountability. 

She, however, commended Uganda for the legal framework in place to deal with corruption.

However, according to Holtgaard, implementation of the anti-corruption laws has been lacking emphasizing that the state and non-state actors needed to work together in dealing with corruption.

"Corruption is widespread and the perception is that it is getting worse. It is changing from the need for survival to amassing wealth. This calls for concentered efforts in order to deal with it," she said.

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