No Cause To Rejoice

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL has ranked Uganda the ninth most corrupt country in the world. Put another way, Uganda’s rating has improved since it was ranked three from the bottom last year.Either way, it is a shame that whenever the world anti-corruption watchdog has published its findings, based on research in the respective countries, Uganda has fared poorly.It is certainly better to be at the other end, in terms of points awarded, on the worldwide index of various forms of graft, hence ninth reflecting a better image than third. But quite apart from the fact that this is a ranking out of 102 countries, it is principally a comparative showing. It means that Uganda is less corrupt than say Indonesia, Kenya, Angola, Madagascar, Paraguay, Nigeria and Bangladesh, all of which ranked worse than us. But it does not necessarily mean that corruption has reduced in Uganda.If anything, anecdotal evidence appears to show otherwise as evidence of various forms of graft keeps getting unearthed. For instance, as Transparency was preparing its report, Uganda was grappling with an alleged bribe that is holding up (needlessly, as it turns out, since it has nothing to do with the Bujagali dam project) disbursement of funds for the biggest ever foreign direct investment in the country.Corruption undermines business confidence, as the Enron and WorldCom scandals in the United States have also shown. It also eats into the credibility of democratic rule. Uganda is still striving to democratise, relieve poverty and enhance economic growth. These ideals will come to nought if we are perceived to be, and in fact continue to be, as corrupt as the world index has indicated.Ends