How funding constrains fight against corruption

The Auditor General, Mr John Muwanga, presents a report before Parliament recently. PHOTO BY ERIC DOMINIC BUKENYA

What you need to know:

The accountability sector was formed following the adoption of the Sector Wide Approach to planning in 1998, mainly to ensure efficient allocation and utilisation of resources.According to the key accountability institutions such as OAG, audit is normally on requests. But due to overwhelming demand and constrained by funds, they are unable to heed all the calls.

Kampala. The funding gap facing accountability institutions is not only constraining the quality of audits and investigations but also speaks volume about government commitment to fight corruption in the public sector, Daily Monitor has learnt.
According to a review of the current financing for these institutions (both national and local government levels) conducted by Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG), funding for accountability sectors between 2013 and 17 is badly wanting.
This is despite a number of legal, institutional and operational reforms that government has undertaken to enhance accountability systems, strengthen the oversight functions and streamline public financial management processes.

“Although the Accountability Sector’s budget (excluding Treasury Operations) in nominal terms has increased from slightly above Shs507b in 2012/13 to about Shs865b in 2016/17, it reduced from 5.2 per cent in 2013/14 to 4.2 per cent in 2016/17. And, it is expected to reduce further to 3.8 per cent in 2017/18,” reads a CSBAG report.
The analysis further reveals that although approved budget increased slightly from nearly Shs113b in 2012/13 to Shs126b in 2016/17, the share of the total National Budget has been declining from 1.04 per cent in 2012/13 to 0.62 per cent in 2016/17.
According to the Accountability Sector Strategic Investment Plan 2014-2019, the accountability sector has a funding gap of Shs222b.

Anti-corruption agencies
Analysis of financing to key anti-corruption agencies such as Office of the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Financial Intelligence Authority, Office of the Auditor General and Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets, shows that total approved budget declined from Shs126.2b in 2013/14 to Shs123.8b in 2016/17.
Consequently, the share of the total budget of key anti-corruption agencies has declined from 0.97 per cent in 2012/13 to 0.61 per cent in 2016/17.
“This shows decreasing government commitment towards funding accountability institutions in Uganda,” reads the CSBAG analysis in part.

The Office of the Auditor General is the most hit in terms of funding deficit with the budget declining from Shs61.4b in 2013/14 to Shs51.2b in 2016/17.
The budget decline is further constrained by the increasing number of auditable agencies, especially at local government levels and emergence of unique sectors such as oil and gas.
During the last four financial years, 42 per cent of the office’s budget was allocated for financial audits with the Value for Money audits oscillating between 15 and 17 per cent.
This is not good given the increasing need for value for money audits towards improving accountability in the country.

Public procurement
Just like all others in the accountability sector, Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) is struggling with a funding gap despite the fact that the institution’s budget allocation increased from Shs8.8b in 2013/14 to Shs14.2b in 2016/17.
Worth noting is that, according to the PPDA Strategic Plan for 2014 and 2019, the authority has a funding gap of Shs10 billion. During the last four financial years, about 30 per cent of the PPDA budget was allocated towards supporting services, with monitoring and compliance, getting more allocation of 12 per cent.
This impact negatively on the ability of PPDA to superintend over multi-billion projects that possess serious vulnerability in terms of corruption.

Beyond PPDA is the Inspectorate of Government that has a serious funding gap of Shs54b, according to the IGG Corporate and Development Plan.
During the last four financial years, about 40 per cent of the IGG budget was allocated towards administration and support services with only 6 per cent allocated to investigations, operations, prosecutions and civil litigation.
Such an allocation has a bearing on the ability of the IGG to undertake investigations of misuse of public resources as well as prosecuting culprits.

The Directorate of Ethics and Integrity, Financial Intelligence Authority and Uganda Revenue Authority are the other bodies grappling with underfunding.
Additionally, funding for District Monitoring and Accountability Grant has remained stagnant at Shs15.2b over the last four financial years.
This is inadequate given the increasing number of districts which, according to the Masaka District Public Accounts Committee, cannot enable committees to fulfill their mandate.
And for this, the CSBAG analysis concludes that the Inadequate “funding of accountability institutions has led to low revenue mobilisation, low levels of compliance, inadequate monitoring and supervision”.

Institutions heads weigh in
When contacted recently, the Auditor General, Mr John Muwanga, acknowledged the funding gap the institution he is heading is experiencing , saying he would wish to be funded 100 per cent but given other competing government interest, that is not be possible.
He said: “Like all government institutions, we have our priority areas but because of funding challenges, we don’t get to have them all addressed.”

He continued: “We have overwhelming requests to conduct audits, but we don’t get to do all of them because government also has other priorities to take care of. So yes we do have funding gap but we understand that there are other competing interests as well that government prioritised.”
As for the PPDA, the senior leadership has been on record asking the government to increase its funding if they want more tangible results.