Graft is Africa’s worst calamity
Jul 18, 2005
Graft in Uganda has become systematic since Idi Amin’s days. Today public funds disappear right from the nose of the receiver of revenue and government treasury. In 2003 the Government appointed the Sebutinde Commission to investigate corruption.
Dr Chris Kibuuka
Graft in Uganda has become systematic since Idi Amin’s days. Today public funds disappear right from the nose of the receiver of revenue and government treasury. In 2003 the Government appointed the Sebutinde Commission to investigate corruption.
Highly placed individuals from the same government frustrated the High Court Judge in carrying out her work.
The 1,500-page document that implicated 500 officers was disowned by Cabinet. It is only after extended persuasion from the civil society that the Government relegated this document to a simple advisory report. Nobody implicated in it has been brought to book.
There have been gross reports of corruption in the army, the junk helicopter scandal, rotten army rations from South Africa and undersize military uniforms from China.
In the public sector there is hardly any contract that is not halved between the corrupt government officials and the state purposes for which it is intended. These range from Universal Primary Education structures to road construction.
The privatisation of public assets ended up in a debacle, enriching a few people in the country.
The joint anti-corruption committee in Uganda estimates corruption to cost only sh200b annually. In my view this is a gross under-estimation.
The paradox of all this is that over 50% of Uganda’s budget is donor-funded. Only this month Uganda’s debt of $3.7b has been struck off by the G8 countries with the stroke of a pen. Hence theoretically re-writing Uganda’s economic history.
It is my assertion that without attending to graft and its causes, this so-called break-through will never benefit Ugandans.
Governments and financial institutions of the West, which squander their tax-payers’ funds by lending them to clearly unaccountable governments must also be held accomplices of the heinous crime of corruption.
They leave us and our grand children under the burden of servicing the debts whose monies were put to waste or indeed returned to western banks and economies by Africa’s reckless Mafia-style leadership.
Nigeria is the sixth biggest producer of oil in the world, yet one of the poorest nations torn with strife. Their petrol pumps are often empty.
General Obasanjo only recently fired his minister of internal affairs for graft on issuing a contract to design and print identity cards for this most populous nation on the African continent (140 million people). Corruption is literally a form of currency in Nigeria alongside the Naira.
I first visited Kenya in 1974 and later worked in Nairobi between 1980 and 1982. This was a prosperous well-structured nation with proper infrastructure stretching from Kisumu to Mombasa. It now stands in economic rot post-Moi’s corrupt regime. Unlike many other African nations, Kenya never went through a civil war post-independence. Is Kibaki doing enough to end this vice?
His anti-graft boss resigned earlier this year amidst far cries from his own cabinet members and international community for him to act firmly and decisively against corruption. This is a country where nearly half of the judiciary was fired by the president in 2004, yet all indications are that corruption is far from being dented. It will take more resolute and more focused efforts for Kenya to exonerate herself from the doldrums of corruption.
The recent action by South African president and his colleagues in dealing with tainting of high office with notions of corruption is most welcome. It shows there is government will to stifle corruption.
The message is clear, four members of parliament have already resigned on the basis of travelgate scam. Senior cabinet ministers are out in full force dealing with corruption in the struggling local government system. If the ANC and South Africa indeed believe that this is Africa’s century (Africa renaissance) they must deal with corruption without remorse.
In Rwanda Kagame says, and I quote, “There is no one big or small, powerful or weak who can steal public funds. If we find out we are unforgiving, we don’t let them get away with it. I hear in some countries corrupt officers are tried from their homes, here you have to be in jail,†he said. Today Rwanda is nearly corruption-free.
Globalisation is for real. The West is entitled to trade with Africa and vice-versa. WATO, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with their new approach on debt to the impoverished world will certainly bring a new lease of life and hope to trade and business in future.
This is only if they selectively lift the debt burden on countries that abide by democratic values and good governance. These attributes are inseparable with accountability and subsequent prosperous trade.
For us in the Third and Fourth world, the new attitude fostered by Britain brings hope of making poverty history by the year 2025 as we continue to push for cuts in subsidies of farmers in the West plus other unjustified trade barriers.
In my new political organisation in Uganda, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), we have constitutionalised this vice as zero tolerance to corruption.
The writer is the external co-ordinator, FDC southern Africa
Graft in Uganda has become systematic since Idi Amin’s days. Today public funds disappear right from the nose of the receiver of revenue and government treasury. In 2003 the Government appointed the Sebutinde Commission to investigate corruption.
Highly placed individuals from the same government frustrated the High Court Judge in carrying out her work.
The 1,500-page document that implicated 500 officers was disowned by Cabinet. It is only after extended persuasion from the civil society that the Government relegated this document to a simple advisory report. Nobody implicated in it has been brought to book.
There have been gross reports of corruption in the army, the junk helicopter scandal, rotten army rations from South Africa and undersize military uniforms from China.
In the public sector there is hardly any contract that is not halved between the corrupt government officials and the state purposes for which it is intended. These range from Universal Primary Education structures to road construction.
The privatisation of public assets ended up in a debacle, enriching a few people in the country.
The joint anti-corruption committee in Uganda estimates corruption to cost only sh200b annually. In my view this is a gross under-estimation.
The paradox of all this is that over 50% of Uganda’s budget is donor-funded. Only this month Uganda’s debt of $3.7b has been struck off by the G8 countries with the stroke of a pen. Hence theoretically re-writing Uganda’s economic history.
It is my assertion that without attending to graft and its causes, this so-called break-through will never benefit Ugandans.
Governments and financial institutions of the West, which squander their tax-payers’ funds by lending them to clearly unaccountable governments must also be held accomplices of the heinous crime of corruption.
They leave us and our grand children under the burden of servicing the debts whose monies were put to waste or indeed returned to western banks and economies by Africa’s reckless Mafia-style leadership.
Nigeria is the sixth biggest producer of oil in the world, yet one of the poorest nations torn with strife. Their petrol pumps are often empty.
General Obasanjo only recently fired his minister of internal affairs for graft on issuing a contract to design and print identity cards for this most populous nation on the African continent (140 million people). Corruption is literally a form of currency in Nigeria alongside the Naira.
I first visited Kenya in 1974 and later worked in Nairobi between 1980 and 1982. This was a prosperous well-structured nation with proper infrastructure stretching from Kisumu to Mombasa. It now stands in economic rot post-Moi’s corrupt regime. Unlike many other African nations, Kenya never went through a civil war post-independence. Is Kibaki doing enough to end this vice?
His anti-graft boss resigned earlier this year amidst far cries from his own cabinet members and international community for him to act firmly and decisively against corruption. This is a country where nearly half of the judiciary was fired by the president in 2004, yet all indications are that corruption is far from being dented. It will take more resolute and more focused efforts for Kenya to exonerate herself from the doldrums of corruption.
The recent action by South African president and his colleagues in dealing with tainting of high office with notions of corruption is most welcome. It shows there is government will to stifle corruption.
The message is clear, four members of parliament have already resigned on the basis of travelgate scam. Senior cabinet ministers are out in full force dealing with corruption in the struggling local government system. If the ANC and South Africa indeed believe that this is Africa’s century (Africa renaissance) they must deal with corruption without remorse.
In Rwanda Kagame says, and I quote, “There is no one big or small, powerful or weak who can steal public funds. If we find out we are unforgiving, we don’t let them get away with it. I hear in some countries corrupt officers are tried from their homes, here you have to be in jail,†he said. Today Rwanda is nearly corruption-free.
Globalisation is for real. The West is entitled to trade with Africa and vice-versa. WATO, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with their new approach on debt to the impoverished world will certainly bring a new lease of life and hope to trade and business in future.
This is only if they selectively lift the debt burden on countries that abide by democratic values and good governance. These attributes are inseparable with accountability and subsequent prosperous trade.
For us in the Third and Fourth world, the new attitude fostered by Britain brings hope of making poverty history by the year 2025 as we continue to push for cuts in subsidies of farmers in the West plus other unjustified trade barriers.
In my new political organisation in Uganda, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), we have constitutionalised this vice as zero tolerance to corruption.
The writer is the external co-ordinator, FDC southern Africa