Will the real Museveni please stand up and fight corruption?

President Museveni’s reign has been dogged by corruption. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

In 2005 the World Bank estimated that Uganda was losing over $310 million (Shs780.5b) a year by that time this figure may have increased or even doubled to date. Its estimated that Uganda may be losing more funds through graft than what the country receives as aid per year. Uganda’s graft has been well documented in the annual Transparency International studies as well other similar studies like, East African Bribery index, Afro Barometer, Africa Peer Review Mechanism reports and other publications including those published by the IGG.

On one side, looking at him nervously from the backbench, are the opposition, the media, donors, the nation’s educated but jobless, the 10 million Ugandans in serious poverty (government says they are 7.1 million) and a ‘stubborn’ legislature.

On his other side are much of the politically connected capitalists, bush war comrades, suspected ministers and crafty civil servants. Caught in the middle is President Museveni and the issue is financial indiscipline.

When I asked a liberal cabinet minister recently why the President re-appointed the ministers who are facing graft accusations and why it had taken him so long to deal with financial indiscipline in government, the response was categorical.

That the President risks being damned whichever side he chooses. Damned by the “bad elements” in his government if he implements Point No.7 of the Ten-Point programme—a policy document written by NRA rebels to guide them once in power or, if he chooses to continue posturing, damned by impoverished majority whom he may need to win re-election if he contests in 2016.

In a muddled fight against corruption, one thing the President can’t be accused of, is perpetual silence. He is an outspoken anti-graft crusader whose lip-service has now become a stumbling block in the fight against financial indiscipline. The President’s stance has been rather blurred and confounding particularly in his “ambiguous” approach to corruption.

The NRM policy is zero tolerance to graft, but for years, the President, who is the party chairman, has been neither here nor there. On many occasions, if not in all the scandals, he has been at the forefront, covering-up suspects in his government even where he is convinced that mistakes were done.

Well, the President can be forgiven on this, in any case; the accusations have touched the fabric that holds any government intact. His failure to provide leadership in the fight against corruption is the tricky part. His lukewarm response to graft has cost the country trillions of shillings.

Scandals
There are several scandals which are likely to form part of his legacy if nothing is done to reverse the situation. These include; the loss of nearly Shs300b injected in the botched National Identity Cards project, the Shs500b lost in Chogm deals, the procurement of fighter jets using Shs1.7 trillion withdrawn from Bank of Uganda without the parliamentary approval, the procurement of the new presidential jet using a $48.2m (Shs88.2b in 2009) loan from Bank of Uganda and compensation deals where Ugandans lost more than Shs200b.

Others are; the loss of Shs70b to 4,000 ghosts on the government payroll, the loss of Shs3b meant for the fight against malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids, the financial turmoil in the Office of the Prime Minister and the loss of Shs5b to a ghost company (Amman Industrial Tools and Equipment Ltd, in the botched procurement of bicycles for village councils. The continued abuse of the Budget Act by government agencies led by State House is also a major concern of MPs.

The Act puts a three per cent carp on government spending provided for under the supplementary requests. But due to financial indiscipline, supplementary spending last financial year rose to nearly seven per cent of the total approved budget. In all these scandals, the President should have taken action but has not for either political expedience or other unexplained excuses.

This kind of irresponsible spending, the highlight of corruption scandals would be a dangerous image for Mr Museveni’s legacy at a time when the country is expecting huge sums of oil money soon. It’s apparent that even with stringent anti-graft laws and the Oil Bills in Parliament, the country badly needs the political will to fight graft and this is where the President comes in.

Financial indiscipline is only the latest issue that is beginning to create the dangerous impression that the President is delineated to the extent that some of his ministers and public servants think they are too powerful yet they are smaller than the events, factions and tides of public opinion that swirl around the government.

In all this, the best present Mr Museveni could give Ugandans as they mark the 50th Independence Jubilee, is to cleanse his government in a renewed war against graft. This is what he promised 26 years go. He should take a decision now. This is what Ugandans would like to see- the highlight of his the Fundamental Change speech.

During the swearing in ceremony on January 29, 1986, Mr Museveni promised Ugandans a fundamental change. In his speech, he said: “No one should think that what is happening today is a mere change of guard; it is a fundamental change in the politics of our country.” Twenty six years later, because of increased financial indiscipline, some Ugandans think “it’s from fundamental change to no chance”.

The President promised many things because the country had gone through tough times due to bad governance from 1966 to 1986. This period witnessed unprecedented authoritarian rule characterised by institutional decay and political insecurity, which adversely affected the economy.

The NRM government has scored highly on peace and stability, rule of law, the economy has grown (from 0.946 per cent of GDP in 1986 to 6.4 per cent last year )and many other achievements. But due to graft, this growth doesn’t make sense to the majority of Ugandans who are trapped in abject poverty.

In part, this is what the President said: “Of course, we may have some bad elements amongst us — this is because we are part and parcel of Ugandan society as it is, and we may, therefore, not be able completely to guard against infiltration by wrong elements. It is, however, our deliberate policy to ensure that we uplift the quality of politics in our country. We are quite different from the previous people in power who encouraged evil instead of trying to fight it..”

The more the President remains irresolute, the more the ‘bad elements’ continue to steal. Those who are stealing from the people have become permanent structures blocking the much needed reagents to unlock the development potential of the people. This is why the President should join parliament in the fight against financial indiscipline and restore public confidence.

In the face of the widespread graft, the country has managed to overcome some challenges but the lack of adequate resources for development and service delivery programmes has kept millions in poverty. Service delivery has broken down at the districts and a sense of ‘hopelessness’ at the centre is crippling once ‘honest’ and ‘robust’ civil service. Government offices have now become hunting grounds and the Auditor General’s findings (June 2009, 2010, 2011) attest to this conclusion.

The trillions of shillings lost through graft in the procurement deals and other tricks public servants play to enrich themselves could help Ugandans in many ways. For instance, to date, only 12 per cent of the population has access to electricity and there is no adequate funds for the construction of 750MW Karuma hydropower dam project.

The estimated total cost for this project is about $2.2b. The oil production cannot start without a refinery estimated at $600m. Some road projects cannot start due to lack of funds and some hospitals have no drugs, doctors, ambulances while some districts have no access to clean water.