Corruption a national disease

Next target. When all the money in the Bank of Uganda, in the President’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Office, the army, police and the Ministry of Finance has all been stolen, where else is there to turn for further money?

Usually in the Third World countries, demonstrations, when they are held at all, tend to focus on human rights violations, dictatorship and rigged elections.

This says something about the level Uganda has sunk to; as demonstrations are now being held to speak out against corruption.

This is what happened last week when a number of civic groups, political parties and freelance activists staged a series of abortive demonstrations against corruption.

The Uganda Police, whose own wives had staged a similar demonstration a week earlier against the same corruption and horrible living conditions, blocked these civic groups.

The four stages of corruption
The October 1, issue of the Jehovah’s Witness magazine, The Watchtower, had a cover story, “Corruption: Will it ever end?”, reflecting the widespread, international reach of this problem.
It is increasingly becoming difficult to survive as an honest person in this world.

At stage one, when it is just starting to become a problem, corruption is a shameful moral problem that we read about and shake our heads in disgust. But at that point we don’t yet directly feel it. It is something we read about in newspapers and hear on the radio. This where Uganda was, from 1989 to about 1996.

The Uganda Confidential newsletter became the first publication in the country’s history (founded in 1990) to report exclusively about corruption. The public started to note and complain that there were too many westerners in prominent government offices. But at that stage, it remained a matter for debate on radio and in the newspapers.

But as time goes on and corruption takes deeper root in society, at stage two it starts to become an economic, business problem. It adds huge costs to business operations.

It greatly disadvantages those who play by the rules but have to compete in an open market alongside those who evade taxes or place phone calls to people “above” and get Bank of Uganda to bail them out.

Second stage
This second stage is what Uganda entered between 1996 and 2003. Ordinary people started to feel and complain in increasing numbers about how difficult it was to get a job, contract, tender or licence if one did not know somebody.

Scholarships meant for ordinary Ugandans were now directly held and distributed by State House. Helicopters that did not work and army uniforms that did not fit became national news. A World War II radar to be used at Entebbe airforce base was bought. It did not work, of course.

Valley dams were built that had no water. Uganda Commercial Bank, the largest in the country and the Uganda Grain Millers, PrintPak, and others, were all sold in very dubious circumstances.

Uganda entered the league of Kenya and Nigeria, the league of unheard-of levels of corruption. Then the country entered stage three - after 2003 - the stage where those in power or those perpetuating the corruption no longer feel a sense of shame.

First in 2003, President Museveni flew his daughter, Natasha, to Germany on the presidential jet (not his personal jet) to give birth to her first child.

This scandal hit Ugandans badly, but it was just the beginning. Two years later, senior government officials had the guts to steal money from the UN’s Global Fund for Malaria, Tuberculosis and Aids, meant for ordinary Ugandans.

Considering that almost every family in Uganda has lost a relative to Aids and how many children still die of malaria each year, if this Global and Gavi Fund money could be so insensitively looted, then practically anything in Uganda was up for grabs from then on.

By the time the President ordered a new Gulfstream presidential jet at over $85 million, then last year Russian-made SU-30 fighter jets at over $700 million that Uganda does not need, then this year ordered two ridiculously expensive Mercedes Benz limousines, Ugandans finally started to see the picture of Mobutu Sese Seko, Kuku Wa Zabanga.

Land grabbing
The grabbing of public land by government and military officials, the building of shopping arcades, large supermarkets and hotels in environmental wetlands, the displacing of schools in order to build these shopping complexes, the stealing of money intended for the 2007 Commonwealth summit and now the massive theft of money in the Office of the Prime Minister --- at this stage, the details no longer matter.

To hold demonstrations against corruption is a well-meaning gesture, but there is something futile about it.
So far in the saga of the massive theft or diversion of money from the Office of the Prime Minister, the country has not heard anything from President Museveni. Even with several major European donors cutting off aid, the President has remained silent.

The very government that started Uganda onto the path of massive corruption, with topmost government officials greatly benefiting, cannot be expected to police itself and bite the hand that feeds it.

Corruption, under the NRM government, is going to continue and will be one of the main factors that could lead to the breakup of the ruling party, and quite probably, lead to its being swept out of power.

In other words, it is very important for analysts now to study the national situation. Why are so many ordinary government accountants openly stealing government money and building large, opulent homes and businesses that are clearly identifiable as their property?

Overwhelming confidence
Where do they get the confidence that the police, the Economic Desk at ISO, State House and the Inspector General of Government are not going to investigate them?

From a political point of view, the rampant corruption and the inability (or unwillingness) by the State to do something about it, speaks to the loss of control by President Museveni.
After all, if massive amounts of money are the only thing that can satisfy public officials, how will that problem ever be contained before it spills over into other problems, such as State security?

If everybody in sensitive public office is now a thief, so to speak, how can President Museveni seriously claim his hold on power is secure?

Unanswered questions
Who in State House is selling Mr Museveni’s secrets to the Mossad for $50,000? Who is secretly tapping his phone on behalf of the CIA for $450,000? Who has copied all the private data on State House or ISO computers for $1.5 million?

Who is secretly allowing arms to be smuggled across Uganda’s borders for a future armed insurrection, for $800,000?
When all the money in the Bank of Uganda, in the President’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Office, the army, police, the Ministry of Finance has all been stolen, where else is there to turn for further money? This third stage of corruption Uganda has entered brings with it those sorts of consequences. It could lead to the collapse of the country or at least of the regime in power.

Next week, I will discuss another important question: Is it possible to be honest in a corrupt Uganda?