Corrupt Officials In Uganda Cough sh632m

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The Deputy Inspector General of Government (IGG), Mariam Wangadya. (Photo credit: Michael Odeng)

The Deputy Inspector General of Government (IGG), Mariam Wangadya. (Photo credit: Michael Odeng)

This, she said, has hindered the work of the office, leading to the dropping of cases due to lack of evidence.

She made the remarks on Friday during the Anti- Corruption week dialogue under the theme ?Translating Commitment into Action? at Hotel Africana.

?Most witnesses do not turn up in court because they are threatened and offered gifts, making prosecution of the case difficult,? Wangadya said.

She also disclosed that sh632m was recovered from corrupt officials last year and paid on to the IGG asset recovery account, although she declined to mention names.

It is understood the IGG also prevented the loss of sh7b.

Wangadya said that the IGG recently stopped the payment of sh29b to former Internal Security Organisation (1SO) former employees after it discovered that their purported representatives had failed to account for sh10b which was already paid out.

Of the sh10b already released, sh7b had been paid to lawyers as ?professional fees?, which she described as theft.

Wangadya said in spite of their commitment in carrying out their constitutional mandate to investigate corruption and hold individuals accountable for misuse of public resources, they face challenges of legal battles, absence of a leadership code tribunal, limited human and financial resource and technology that have made corruption hard to detect.

According to Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU) last year?s report, bribery is the highest form of corruption with 24%, nepotism favoritism and tribalism 22%, embezzlement and theft 20%, forgery/fraud 16%, neglect of duty 11% and finally selling of public goods at 7%.

The report also states that 21.8% respondents perceived medical institutions as the most corrupt.

17% considered corruption to exist in schools while 11.3% of the study respondents considered corruption to exist in police and judiciary.

?Disabled judiciary?

The study was carried out in Amuria and Masindi districts.

It further states that police officers are the most corrupt officials with 29%, civil servants 25%, local council officers 21%, politicians 12%, courts of law/judiciary 9%, community 3% and NGOs/ organizations at 2%.

Patrick Kayemba, the board chairman of ACCU, urged the Ugandan government to appoint the new Chief Justice following the unconstitutional appointment of Justice Benjamin Joseph Odoki who reached the mandated retiring age of 70.

?The government has disabled the judiciary because it has no head?.

Odoki clocked 70 on March 23, 2013 and then served a three-month extension until 23 June. He has served in the judiciary for 35 years and as Chief Justice for the last 12 years.

The superintendent of police, Moses Talemwa who is attached to health monitoring unit at State House, urged government to reshuffle district leaders in order to fight corruption.

?The district leaders like the chairpersons, RDCs, chief administrative officers, trade development officers among others should be rotated if we are to fight corruption.?

Meanwhile, the Director of Ethics and Education Amos Lapenga commended the Black Monday New Letter Magazine for its educative and meaningful education and suggested that the ACCU rebrands and translates it in other local languages for easy reading.

?The magazine and brochure has good information but the public perceives it as biased and yet is the bottleneck in the fight against corruption. Let?s rebrand it so that it becomes more acceptable to the public? he said.

Lapenga warned parents against giving money to their children who vie for school leadership positions, saying it may affect them in the future.

Michael Odeng and Jackie Mugume, The New Vision

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