Activists seek new strategies to fight corruption
Justice Lawrence Gidudu
KAMPALA- A new report by Uganda Debt Network (UDN) has described the fight against corruption as “fighting back and a failure” because of government’s failure to grant the powers to recover and confiscate property of corrupt officials.
Launched on Tuesday in Kampala, the report that details unabated corruption scandals, seeks to empower ordinary citizens to participate in influencing poverty-focused policies, demand their rights and monitor social service delivery to ensure prudent, accountable and transparent resource generation and utilisation.
“Unless checked, the gravity of corruption remains heavy for Ugandan society in respect to equitable economic development, accountability and desirable service delivery outcomes,” reads the report in part.
The UDN director of programmes, Mr Julius Kapwepwe, said a body to oversee seizure of property should be put in place, strengthened and operationalized to fight graft at all levels.
It recommends strengthening collaboration between media, civil society and government agencies, a deliberate effort to disseminate information about the need to fight corruption as widely as possible, empowering citizens to hold government accountable, sanctioning of public officials accused of corruption, and implementation of audit recommendations.
While discussing the report, Justice Lawrence Gidudu, said although it draws analysis of trends in corruption, implications of corruption cases, it fails to provide concrete recommendations to be adopted by relevant policy and decision-makers.
“There is need to start by formulating and implementing strategies that strengthen the independence of anti-corruption authorities and employment of policies to trigger behavioural change if we are to successfully fight corruption from society,” Justice Gidudu said.
He advised that government and policy makers must establish an assets recovery unit to identify, seize and recover property of those prosecuted of corruption.
“We should target prosecuting, imprisoning and recovery of property amassed due to corruption and as the culprit is released, he should find nothing at home to serve as a lesson to others who are corrupt,” he said.
