IGG takes corruption fight to the community

As the war against corruption intensifies, the Inspectorate of Government has also devised new ways of fight the vice.

The Deputy Inspector General of Government George Bamugemereire told New Vision that the inspectorate has now taken the fight to the communities.

So far, Bamugemereire said 65,000 community members have been trained to help the Inspectorate fight the vice.

"Fraud happens in the community. We have now agreed to take the fight to the communities where these things happen. We think that if we train the community, we will wipe out corruption and even if we don't, at least we would narrow it," he said.

Bamugemereire said people are stealing money because they are not supervised and enlisting the participation of the community would go a long in eradicating the vice. 

Today, Bamugemereire said, because of the training and sensitisation, there is no corruption case that happens in the community without the Inspectorate getting to know about it.

He said they have also enlisted the participation of the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda to fight corruption through a change of heart.

"Corruption is a matter of the heart. That is why we are partnering with the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda to help us talk to people's hearts," he said.

The Inspectorate on Wednesday launched equipment or a digital forensic laboratory that will help the institution investigate and prosecute high profile fraud cases that are conducted through electronic devices.

The laboratory will, according to officials, help the investigators recover electronic information that is in deleted, encrypted, and corrupted files from computers and phones of persons suspected to have engaged in corruption.

Speaking at the launch of the lab at the Inspectorate's offices in Kampala, Bamugemereire noted that with the newly established specialised equipment, the Inspectorate will be able to solve corruption riddles that were hitherto concealed electronically.

Bamugemereire said that because of the changing forms of corruption, from simple misappropriation of funds involving paperwork to syndicated high profile corruption, the Inspectorate had to shift from whistleblowers to unravel the transition electronically.

The equipment's authenticity is globally acceptable and the results are acceptable and unquestionable in the courts of law.

"When the government payment system transitioned from physical cash to electronic payment, it became difficult to get cash into the private hands, and as a result payment now is syndicated. For us to track its movement, from one official to another, we had to also go digital.

With this equipment, we will be able to trace the motive, the plan, the actors, and the action by retrieving the suspects' information shared on computer or mobile phone even if it was deleted," Bamugemereire said.