CAN WE STAMP OUT CORRUPTION IN UGANDA?

podcast here

Last week the Inspector General of Government Betti Kamya reported that her office has started verifying the declarations of public officials.

Under the leadership code political leaders and senior public officials are supposed to declare their wealth every so often. The move is intended to serve as a deterrent to corruption.

However, her office also reported that thousands of political leaders and public officials have not declared the wealth in the stipulated time. Of the 25,000 political leaders 23,080 had not declared and of the 333,000 public officers only 182,187 had declared their wealth.

Such breaches can lead to interdiction of public officials, confiscation of ill-gotten wealth, payment of a fine and imprisonment depending on the crime.

So in an ideal world we should expect in coming weeks and months, mass interdictions of public officials, convictions, fines and jail term for thousands of officials who have thumbed their noses at the IGG...

The man on the street will not encourage you to hold your breath for this to happen. If it happened, it would be an earth shattering development. This is sad not least of all because the general public has little confidence in the government’s will to stamp out corruption.

But why is it so hard to rid ourselves of this scourge?

Isn’t it clear that corruption negatively affects service provision and therefore is politically expensive? Isn’t it clear that it serves to widen wealth inequalities in the society which threatens instability and chaos? Isn’t it clear that the stronger the corrupt become, will protect themselves against any move against them from wherever it comes endangering the very government that seems to be protecting them from prosecution?

The Auditor General in his report for the year ending 2021 pointed out that hundreds of government projects happen without a feasibility study done, which means they may not be successful in achieving their intended goals, may suffer duplication and worse, suffer conflict from other government projects.

They say when we fail to plan, we plan to fail. So it is safe to say most of these projects will flop, which is sad, even tragic, because of the 371 projects sampled 245 – worth sh645b had no feasibility study.

A few years ago the budget for treating 140,000 inpatients at Mulago hospital was set at sh22.5b. Assuming a third – about sh215b of those unplanned expenditures went to waste, that would be the cost of treating all Mulago’s inpatients for ten years. Or put another way because these monies have gone begging the quality of service at Mulago will, and does reflect that loss.

This is more important than it sounds. One of the main ways to get people out of poverty is to give them the means to earn more. Countries do this by educating their people – so they can earn more and keeping them healthy – so they can have fewer sick days, so to the extent you can offer quality education and health services, because some people are pocketing the money, means more people miss the bus out of poverty...

But assuming this sh215b was shared equally – is their honour among thieves? by 100 officials each taking home just over two billion shillings, so not only have a million Mulago patients suffered poor quality service the hundred officials can now be treated in private hospital here or abroad. The resources of a million have been appropriated by a 100 people. Meaning, as the poor people get poorer because the ladder to wealth has been kicked out from under their feet, the rich public officials get richer because they and their offspring get better services, that improve their productivity and ensure they will earn more. Scandalous!

Which brings me finally to the question of whether corruption can be stamped out. While it is true that if you called a meeting of the corrupt you would have an empty room, the corrupt have their networks which feed them and more importantly preserve them.

A man with an official salary of four million shillings but who earns up to 10 times that amount monthly in underhand deals, will fight viciously to protect his turf. His co-conspirators brought together by mutual benefit will do the same. The more they eat, the more extensive and entrenched the networks become until they assume a life of their own and are a power onto themselves.

We see it every day with the sense of entitlement and the impunity of certain sections of our society.

As they grow they will stop working for the government and the government will start working to sustain them, their friends and family.

And eventually, in the weird way that these things work, they will become a threat to the very state that feeds them. Because at some point someone is going to say enough is enough and these corrupt networks will do away with such “retrogressive” ideas...

No one can argue that we aren’t already far along that slippery slope. Whether we are beyond redemption will depend on who you talk to.

So, can we stamp out corruption from this country?