Corruption killing businesses, bad for long term investment, government told

The entrenched corruption the government is faced with is not only bad for service delivery but also steadily rendering the country unattractive for quality investment, according to expert analysis done by Uganda Debt Network.

Particularly at risk is the image of the country as conducive destination for long term private sector investment, considering that serious investors tends to want to invest in an environment that is free of toxics such as corruption.
According to Uganda Debt Network, the impact of corruption on national debt and cost of doing business is extremely massive, challenging the government to walk the talk on corruption, stressing that time for rhetoric and paying of lip service is long gone.
Corruption in Uganda is deep rooted even by the government’s own admission and seen as one of the greatest obstacles to the country’s economic development as well as to the provision of quality public services.

The leadership of private sector players interviewed for this article were of the view that companies doing business in Uganda often times seems to be under considerable level of pressure to dish out a bribe or else deal with the laborious bureaucracies, some of which are deliberately introduced by the public officials to compel the business person into buying his or her way.
Once businesses are locked in that hopeless situation, they tend to comply by way of offering kickbacks or bribes that comes in many shape and form.

The procedure involved to start a business, although lately it has been relaxed, involved large numbers of documents, payments and processes, encouraging companies and individuals to pay bribes or at least offer gifts in order to speed up such processes, according to Doing Business Report jointly done by WB and IFC.
According to the Enterprise Survey on Uganda, more than 50 per cent of the companies surveyed expect to give gifts in order to “get things done”.
It also emerged that business people although some do fall for this vice consider such payments and bribes as irregular and annoying, including those connected to imports and exports, public utilities, tax payments, and the award of public contract which are all relatively common.
Uganda is the 149 least corrupt nation out of 175 countries, according to the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International. Corruption Rank in Uganda averaged 115.45 from 1996 until 2018, reaching an all-time high of 151 in 2016 and a record low of 43 in 1996.

National Integrity Survey conducted by the Inspectorate of Government, shows the most recurrent forms of corruption in the country include the payment of bribes, followed by embezzlement of public money, then nepotism and favouritism, all compromising service delivery. Corruption is wide spread in government institutions, including procurement where trillion of shillings is offered in bribes and kickbacks. This is closely followed by police, and the defence, education and health sectors.
Despite some progress, more there still need to be done to improve the level of transparency and accountability of the country’s public financial management system still.

Analysts show their hands
Considering all the above, analysts and anti-corruption campaigners from Uganda Debt Network and several other likeminded seem to have come to a conclusion that the problem of corruption, taking a toll on business climate, national debt and public service delivery, lies on the government weak implementation of the law meant to eliminate corruption.
Just recently President Yoweri Museveni led the walk against corruption under the theme, “Renewing the fight against corruption”, and the slogan “A corrupt-free Uganda starts with me” And while delivering his speech on the day, the President Museveni noted, and rightly so, that Uganda has all the laws in place to check and eliminate corruption.
But according to Ms Christine Byiringiro, Programme Officer under the Policy Analysis and Governance Programme, believes that laws related to fighting corruption have been applied selectively thus making corruption thrive and giving credence to the saying that goes: “One step forward, two steps backwards.”

Call to action
For that, she disclosed that a friendly-pocket version of Inspectorate of Government Act, 2002 has been made available to businesses and all sector players to turn to for quick reference to deal with corruption related cases they there are fronted with.
The Executive Director of Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), Mr Gideon Badagawa last week in a public-private sector dialogue in Kampala said until the loud voices against corruption made by among others the government begin to put into action what they say, it will remain just that—rhetoric.

Government has also been urged to expedite the process of instituting an independent Leadership Code Tribunal, provide more resources to accountability sector institutions including: Financial Intelligence Authority, Police CID and Inspectorate of Government to reduce the risk of loss of public resources. And that the Auditor General’s recommendations should always be implemented in a timely manner to recover lost funds and prevent repetitive irregularities.
This should be in addition to speeding up the process of enacting the Witness Protection law as a number of Whistle Blowers become witnesses during procession.
PSFU is also willing to support anti-corruption efforts in fighting private sector-led anti-corruption initiatives.

[email protected]