Uganda may be unfairly judged on corruption ­— IGG

Today is the International Anti-Corruption Day. In Uganda, the main arm of government that fights corruption is the Inspectorate General of Government.  Joshua kato caught up with the Inspector General of Government (IGG) Rapheal Baku and below is what he said.

Question: Is it true that Uganda is one of the most corrupt countries in the world?
 
Answer: It may not be true that Uganda is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, because Transparency International, which is at the fore front of producing these reports uses perception rather than concrete evidence. And because it is perception, even increased efforts to fight against corruption may be confused for increased incidences of corruption. At the moment for example, Parliament is talking about corruption, all radio talk-shows are about corruption and yet this was not the case before. However, discussing corruption and improving the means by which corrupt tendencies may not necessarily mean actual increase of corruption in the country.
 
Qn: How can you describe the corruption levels in Uganda?

It is difficult to describe the level of corruption in Uganda because we are yet to develop a tool that can carry out specific gauging. We depend on the National Survey where we get reports from house-holds, individuals, private and public personalities, which all depends on perception. It is difficult to confirm whether corruption is decreasing or increasing if you are using such system. However, the Economic Policy Research Centre, Makerere recently helped us develop a Data Tracking Mechanism that we are now using to generate reports on corruption using constant indicators so that we can monitor the trends of corruption and get an answer whether it is increasing or decreasing.
 
QN: How do you determine the most corrupt institution?

Here we ask people who have been directly been confronted by corruption. We ask them who the main subject was and that is how we determine basing on the most mentioned institution. In the last report (released in November this year) the areas that were covered included Education, Health and Law Enforcement. However, there was criticism that we should have focused on more institutions. And according to the Data Tracking Mechanism, it showed that corruption was increasing in the targeted sectors, compared to previous years.     
 
Qn: What is construed as corruption in the Ugandan case?

In most of Europe, only bribery is considered as corruption under the law. In Uganda, the situation is different. The Anti-corruption Act has got at least 20 cases that are considered as corruption tendencies. For example, while abuse of office, negligence of duty, embezzlement of funds, direct bribery, absence from work etc are all chargeable before the law as corruption cases. And because the Uganda Anti-corruption Act has got more listed corruption tendencies, this increases the chances of a case being reported. For example, some body may see a poorly constructed road and he concludes that the engineer must have eaten something hence the shoddy work. However, in actual sense it may be that the engineer was only lazy and did not carry out proper and effective supervision of the road works before he certified it. But the general feeling may be that he must have taken a cut. 
 
Qn: What is the impact of corruption on society?

It is a major concern now, both internationally and locally. Corruption fuels other crimes, for example drug abuse and money laundering, trafficking of arms etc. It is obvious that for one person to move drugs he must have engaged some other person in a corruption tendency. Diverting national resources that are intended for development work has fuelled misery amongst the population because it affects service delivery. Corruption breeds conflicts too. For example, the current conflicts in the Arab world were caused by perceived corruption on the side of the leaders. This is why we need to focus and fighting the evil called corruption.
 
Qn: What has been the major success of the office of the IGG in the fight against corruption?

We have had more cases reported than in previous years. We have also had more cases investigated and prosecuted than in previous years. For example in 2010, we successfully took to court 35 cases and of these we won 28, loosing just 7 cases. Comparatively, in 2009, we successfully concluded only one case, 10 in 2008 and so far 17 in 2011. One of the reasons more cases are being reported is the creation of the Whistle Blowers Act. We are getting more people reporting to us as Whistle Blowers, which is good. However, the act needs to be further taken down to the lowest people. 
 
Qn: Do you get any kind of influence from leaders?

The office of the IGG is independent, therefore there is no direct interference. However, in some cases were the subjects of investigations are politicians, the cases are politicised. Most of them claim publically that they are being prosecuted for political reasons. Surprisingly, however, none of them uses the ‘political persecution’ phrase in the courts as a defence. 
 
Qn: Why do you carry out selective prosecution?

The entire process of receiving reports from reporters and whistle blowers, carrying out investigations and going to court is selective in nature. We receive more cases than what we can effectively investigate and at the end of the day, refer some of them to other bodies like the PPDA and Public Service. When we undertake cases, we have to prioritise them using several measures. For example, what will be the impact of the case to the public? Has the case got enough evidence to help us win it? Then depending on the results of the investigations, we decide on whether to go to court or not. People who complain that we are doing selective prosecution are mainly those who want certain people prosecuted because they perceive them to be thieves and yet they cannot come out with clear evidence to help us do so.
 
Qn: What are the major challenges to your work?

The human resource base and the financial base are both low and yet corruption is widespread around the country. For example, we have this head office here, and 16 regional offices across the country. But compared to 112 districts, it means that each office is in charge of at least eight districts which is too high.
The human resource that we have is not sufficiently trained to handle investigations. The public does not also take corruption seriously until it directly affects them.

Simply jail, seize wealth of the corrupt

Oderick Ahimbazwe made a street survey to find out how the Government should deal with corrupt officials.

Click here to read what people said.