A different, more effective way to stop theft of public money

Mr Museveni’s “historic mission” was to use the gun to kick out hapless Amin, Obote and Lutwa and return Uganda to normalcy. But is he the man to fight corruption and return decency to government and country?

Stealing of public money is now so widespread that President Museveni is musing publicly about shooting the thieves China-style.

The President should stop musing and act in a big and thorough manner. No, nobody should be killed by firing squad. But there are things Mr Museveni, whose government is mired in grand theft and even grander incompetence at just about every level, can cause to be done. This show really starts with him.

First, he must order a deep forensic audit of all government ministries, departments and agencies. This will cost money, but it may be money well spent in the long run if the findings are robust and recommendations are acted on. Those findings would no doubt reveal what the Ugandan public – especially those of us who appear on radio and write in newspapers – talks about all the time: that this government is “corrupt through and through”, as Achebe’s Mr Green observed gravely.

Second, he should not rely only on the legal route when cases of grand theft come up, which is very often. Where the legal path is used, it should be selective. For the smaller thieves and accomplices such as cashiers, system administrators, junior accountants, a purely legal approach is fine. Once found guilty, they must save time and refund all the stolen money plus interest.

For their godfathers and mothers – the permanent secretaries, under-secretaries and principal accountants – the stakes must be a lot higher. Where a prima facie case exists, they should certainly be tried and face all the consequences that come with a guilt verdict. There are those, however, especially the permanent secretaries and under-secretaries, who may not have actually stolen but the thieving occurred on their watch. These ones must still be held accountable for negligence or incompetence or both.

I am not talking about stepping aside, itself a most rare thing in our land. They must resign. The President must demand their resignation, especially if they are permanent secretaries who are appointees of the President. With resignation, they cannot sue the government for wrongful dismissal.

For reasons best known to him, President Museveni does not do these bold things, having reduced himself to musing casually about the looting mafia in his government to the Chinese and before them the Rwandans.
Presidential musings would not be a problem. It is just that stolen money is not money you can use to build houses for doctors in post-conflict northern Uganda. Musings cannot replace action. That seems the case unfortunately. There is no reason whatsoever why Permanent Secretary Pius Bigirimana still sits behind his shiny desk in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). This is no way to fight corruption, Mr President.

There are, in fact, many permanent secretaries and other top technocrats who should not be holding their jobs. Accountant General Gustavio Bwoch reportedly hinted at resigning while appearing before Parliament over the theft in the OPM. Go, boss, go. I say. You have failed to manage your accountants. They have run completely rogue; stealing from ministry to ministry and back again with smug confidence.

A lot of bureaucrats at permanent secretary level have also simply stayed too long, sometimes more than 10 years, in one ministry. They have consequently built fiefdoms from which they steal on top of inserting their sons, daughters, and mistresses. So focussed on theft and nepotism they have no time to supervise anything. That is why service delivery is almost non-existent despite all the money thrown at the various programmes. Why Mr Museveni lets his permanent secretaries overstay in these places is a mystery. Or maybe it is not.

I suspect Mr Museveni will seek re-election in 2016 on an anti-corruption platform. There is not much else left for him to run on. It cannot be professionalising the army, or completing certain projects, or fixing Kampala’s potholes. All his political capital is expended as well. So corruption it is. That is why you see the present well-publicised police investigations into the various swindles. Is this mere posturing for purely political ends?

Mr Museveni’s “historic mission” was to use the gun to kick out hapless Amin, Obote and Lutwa and return Uganda to normalcy. But is he the man to fight corruption and return decency to government and country?

Mr Tabaire is a media consultant with the African Centre for Media Excellence.
bentab@hotmail.com