Bamugemereire calls for firm local complaints handling

KAMPALA - The Deputy Inspector General of Government, George Bamugemereire, has asked government institutions to establish firm local complaints handling process to quicken service delivery to citizens.

He said this during a meeting with the Executive Director of Kampala Capital City Authority, Dorothy Kitaka, on Thursday. She had paid him a courtesy visit at his office at Parliament Avenue.

Bamugemereire said the system should be managed by a person with the clout to make decisions and move processes forward.  

He noted that because of the absence of effective internal systems to handle complaints, the citizens have resorted to reporting all cases to the IGG even basic complaints which should be handled internally.

"The institutions are so big and complex that citizens who have issues do not know where to begin from in case they have issues. They are at loss. When they fail, they revert to the Inspectorate of Government for a solution which then triggers costly and cumbersome investigations. For example, investigating a teacher based deep in the village whose name has been removed from the payroll. The case takes months to investigate, and then IGG writes to CAO to reinstate the teacher. But if we had proper running systems, this would not even take days," he said  

He said the key drivers of corruption in Local Government and other government institutions are poor supervision and maladministration.

"Much of the corruption reported in Local Government is down to poor supervision. Accounting officers sometimes easily release payments but are not sufficiently diligent to demand not just accountability in form of receipts but actual services delivered," he said.

"This is why there's a need to establish firm local complaints handling process in KCCA.  KCCA is critical to service delivery in the country but it is so big and complex that many citizens and government officials are at loss as to where to begin in case they have an issue to resolve," he added.

Kitaka appreciated the IGG's effort to eradicate corruption but also noted that it's not an easy job.

However, she noted that KCCA is a vast institution that requires a lot of collaboration with other institutions.

She welcomed the idea of establishing a local complaints system and appealed to the IGG for support to ensure that the system is effective and delivers services to the system.