Graft: Committee to probe senior politicians, government officials still missing

The promise:
In the run up to the 2011 General Election, the ruling NRM party released the 2011-2016 manifesto in which it committed itself to, among other things, vigorously pursuing a policy of zero-tolerance to corruption if it was granted a fresh mandate.

The party put forward a five-point action plan through which the fight against corruption was meant to be carried out.
One of the five promises was that the President would put in place a special team that would always be called upon to probe political leaders and senior government officials whenever they would be implicated in acts of corruption.
“The President will constitute a committee that investigates political leaders and senior public officers once they have been mentioned in corruption-related scandals and report back to the President within a specific time frame,” the manifesto reads.

According to the manifesto, if the committee were to report back to the President recommending further investigation, the President would not only sanction the investigation, but also ask the concerned person to step aside for the duration of the investigation.

The other four action points were a continuation of the pursuit of the policy of zero tolerance to corruption: Strengthening the investigative and prosecution capacity of anti-corruption agencies to deal with complex cases involving cybercrime; and getting the public involved in the fight against corruption.

Action point number four was allowing individuals to initiate civil suits to recover whatever wealth the corrupt could have accumulated as a result of engaging in acts of corruption. This was aimed at encouraging private individuals with information on corruption-related transactions to come out as they stood to get a share of proceeds from the sale of such properties.

Scandals
The promise to constitute the committee came at a time when the country was still reeling from the effects of two scandals in which millions of dollars from both the Global Fund to Fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) were diverted in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

In August 2005, the Global Fund suspended grants to Uganda after an investigation unearthed what was termed as “serious mismanagement” of the money.
President Museveni subsequently constituted a six-member commission headed by Justice James Ogoola to investigate misuse of a grant of more than $200million, which the country had received from the Global Fund.
The final report, which was released by Cabinet in April 2007 unearthed more than 50 cases of abuse of the money, which had been meant for the fight against Aids, tuberculosis and malaria and indicted Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi, and his former junior colleagues, Mr Mike Mukula and Dr Alex Kamugisha.

All the three who were not reappointed to the Cabinet that Mr Museveni formed following the 2006 General Election, were subsequently arrested and charged for offences related to the wastage of the funds.
On July 31, 2012 the Anti-Corruption Court, citing lack of incriminating evidence on the part of the prosecution, cleared Gen Muhwezi and Dr Kamugisha of charges of causing financial loss, abuse of office and embezzlement, but ruled that their co-accused, Capt Mike Mukula had a case to answer.

On January 18, 2013 Chief Magistrate Irene Akankwasa convicted Capt Mukula to four years in jail for allegedly embezzling Shs210 million from the Gavi account, but the sentence was overturned on appeal.
it is against that background, and amid fears of those who were believed that the system was only clamping down hard on the small fry in the form of junior government officials and mid-level politicians, the promise that the President would constitute a committee to work at that level was sweet music to the ears.

Impact
So far, only one high ranking politician and two senior public servants accused of corruption have been asked to step aside. The politician is Mr Herbert Kabafunzaki, the state minister for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations, who is the MP Rukiga County in Kabale District. He is being prosecuted for allegedly demanding a bribe to the tune of Shs25 million from Sudanese businessman and chief of Aya Group, Mr Mohammed Hamid.

The public servants are two officials from the Ministry of Finance, Mr Mike Ogwal, an economist, and Mr Godfrey Turyamuhika, a commissioner, both of whom were arrested in March last year for allegedly taking bribes from investors.
The President was quick to vow that his government will “be harsh on public servants’ guilty of corruption” and was, a few days after the public servants arrest, involved in laying the trap that netted Mr Kabafunzaki. However, public sentiments suggest that not enough is being done in the fight against corruption in high offices, which could be partly blamed on his failure to constitute a committee to probe that section of the citizenry.

The 2017 report of the Inspector General of Government (IGG) titled, “Bi-annual Inspectorate of Government Performance”, which was submitted to Parliament in January suggests that tendencies of corruption are highest among public servants.
Basing on complaints filed in the IGG’s office, public officials were listed as the most corrupt with at least 330 complaints filed against them and Local Government officials second with 328 complaints filed against them.

Ranking
At the same time, the citizenry seems to have lost hope of redeeming Uganda from the fangs of corruption. A report that Transparency International released in February indicates that Uganda was for the second year running stuck in position 151 in the global corruption perceptions index covering 180 countries. The Global Corruption Index (CPI) is based on the extent to which the citizenry think corruption takes place in their country. Earlier, Uganda had ranked 127th in 2010, 143rd in 2011, 130th in 2012, 140th in 2013, and 142nd in 2014. In 2012, the World Bank estimated that Uganda was losing about $300million to corruption.

Later that year, it emerged that senior politicians and government officials in the Office of the Prime Minister had embezzled about $12.7 million in donor funds that had been meant for alleviating conditions in poverty-stricken Karamoja and reconstruction of northern Ugandan, which was emerging from two decades of a brutal civil war.
The European Union, United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway reacted by suspending aid, but save for the prosecution and conviction of a few middle level government officials, the politicians and senior government officials remained untouched.
Only the principal accountant, Mr Godfrey Kazinda, was prosecuted.

OFFICIAL POSITION
Senior presidential press secretary Don Wanyama said he was not aware of the existence of a committee appointed by the President to probe senior politicians and government officials accused of corruption, but hastened to add that the President does not necessarily need it to act against errant officials.
“I am not aware of the formation of such a committee, but the President gets intelligence reports. He doesn’t need a committee to take action. He acts whenever he gets the information,” he told Daily Monitor on Monday.

MONITOR POSITION
The State needs to do much more in the fight against corruption. In April last year, following the arrest of Mr Kabafunzaki, Mr Museveni called on the media and the public to join hands in the fight against corruption. The media has been playing its part. It highlights corruption in print and through electronic media outlets.

The public too has been exposing corrupt public servants during barazas organised in the districts by the Office of the Prime Minister, but nothing much ever comes of the exposes. This is breeding impunity on the part of the corrupt and a loss of faith on the part of those who still feel that the country can still be salvaged.

Corruption is no doubt undermining development and human rights, especially in upcountry areas where it is interfering by way of either misappropriation or theft, of resources that should have perhaps been channeled towards providing basic amenities such as water and health services to the people. More action needs to be taken. Mr Museveni could begin with constituting the committee to probe corruption in high offices.