Tuesday, December 24, 2024

CORRUPTION: THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THINGS REMAIN THE SAME

Looking through the end of year columns of the last decade a consistent theme was for the wish for the end of corruption.

In November 2010 this column pointed out that the fight against corruption was a joke as long as civil servants were being paid a pittance

“As long as the Government continues to pretend to pay, people will continue to pretend to work while devising other means to meet their basic needs. It is blindingly obvious.”

The column continued to point out that, “The lowly paid civil servant lives in Nakasero, Bugolobi and Ntinda, is building in Namugongo and Buwate and is unstintingly loyal, racking up five, ten, 15 years in the civil service.

This would be an illusion if they were conjuring this lifestyle out of their payslips.”

In 2011 while reporting about the passing of two new pieces of legislation – The Whistle Blowers Act and the Anti-Corruption Act, noted the vice will always be difficult to fight.

“Unlike murder or even outright theft, in corruption cases, bribery for instance, both parties are guilty of a crime, witnesses are hard to come by and paper trails can be obscured. The aggrieved party is a faceless government or a far removed public, neither of whom maybe aware a crime had been committed or an unable to do anything about it for legal or bureaucratic reasons.”

The column which was published on 12 December 2011 ended on a hopeful note, “Corruption is everywhere the challenge is to relegate it to the fringes of our daily lives, current evidence suggests we maybe on our way.”

In December 2012 the column reported an aid pull out following corruption scandal in the Office of the prime minister but were skeptical the action would provide a lasting solution or even accelerate the momentum in the fight against corruption.

The column explained that due to the individual agendas of donor countries, a lot of it to do with maintaining influence over the Kampala government, the pull out would be shortlived.

“The recent aid suspensions amount to a slap on the wrist and one can expect we will be back to business as usual by this time next year. This is not thumbing our noses at the donors, it’s just the way the world works.

 "It is bad enough that we continue to rely on donors to cover our budget shortfalls. But it is bad upbringing to expect the donors to come in and clear out our mess.”

And of course in 2013 we wondered whether our honourable representatives were looking out for our best interests,

"Honourable MPs, with your sh20m salaries, hundred million shilling four wheel drive guzzlers and billion shilling car park, you make us – the down trodden of the earth, wonder whether you are  irredeemably stupid or that you have ulterior, self-serving motives that we are not privy to, that motivate your actions.”

And in 2014 we brought home what the real cost of corruption was,

"So instead of 1,000 inpatients being treated at Mulago, one man buys himself a Toyota Land Cruiser VX or sends his four children to a top international school locally for a year or organises a week long holiday for his five-member family plus nanny to the Maldives or Seychelles.”

If recent reports about monies stolen from the treasury or people forging the president’s signature, are anything to go by, no space is sacred to the white-collar criminals we are breeding.

Not to belabor the point, but corruption remains a thorn in our side, slowing down growth, hobbling development and hurtling us inevitably to social unrest and political instability.

Looking back it is hard to say that there has been meaningful progress in slowing down the corruption juggernaut, if the apartments sprouting out of every wet land in the suburbs are anything to go by, I am afraid corruption has only picking up pace.

We at Shillings & cents would love to be wrong, because this is our country and we hope to bequeath our descendants a better place than we found. But the logic is inescapable. And every year that we do not implode in an orgy of social upheaval, is one more year to be worried.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

 

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