IGG names most corrupt districts

A report by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) has listed district civil servants as the most corrupt public officials in the country.
The 2018 report titled ‘Bi-annual Inspectorate of Government Performance report to Parliament’, also named Kampala and Wakiso as the districts with the most corruption cases.
The report to Parliament is based on complaints raised between July and December last year. The corruption complaints against the district officials such as the chief administrative officers, district chairpersons and town clerks are 31.1 per cent of the total cases reported to the IGG.

Others on the list are individuals (14.3 per cent), schools (5.3 per cent), police (4.8 per cent), municipal and town councils (3.9%), and universities and tertiary institutions (2.3 per cent). District service commissions, the lands office and sub-county administrations scored seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively.

Explaining why the schools catapulted to the top three most corrupt institutions in the country, Ms Munira Ali, the IGG spokesperson, said: “We have been receiving increased complaints to do with issues of forgery of academic papers, illegal charges on Uneb fees and diversion of funds, among others. Actually, we have since even charged some head teachers.”
Some of the perennial most corrupt government institutions such as the Judiciary registered fewer corruption complaints, according to the report.
The Judiciary is ranked 16th with 0.6 per cent corruption complaints, an improvement from the 9th position in the 2017 report when they registered 3.8 per cent complaints.

Mr Emmy Vincent Mugabo, the Judiciary public relations officer, attributed the improvement in ranking to mechanisms such as open-court days where litigants are sensitised on the roles of courts, strengthening of its inspectorate arm to investigate corruption cases among its staff and name tagging of support staff such as court clerks.
Nevertheless, the magistrates courts were ranked as the most corrupt in the Judiciary, registering the 15th position.
“The challenge with magistrates courts is that they mix with the bigger population and stakeholders such as police, prisons and officials from the DPP’s office are also involved in the trials hence the corruption avenues are widened,” Mr Mugabo explained by telephone last evening.

Most corrupt districts
For the second time running, Kampala has been named the most corrupt district, registering 175 complaints, which translates into an estimate of 15.7 per cent.
In the 2017 report, the district had registered 334 complaints, translating into 21.4 per cent.

In the latest report, Kampala is followed by Wakiso, Arua, Jinja, Bundibugyo, Mbale, Moyo, Moroto, Soroti, and Kasese respectively. Namutumba, Ntoroko and Rubirizi were ranked the least corrupt districts, with each posting one complaint.
The most registered complaints were abuse of office that had 163 complaints (18 per cent), embezzlement had 63 complaints (7%) while corruption registered 62 complaints, representing 6.9 per cent.

[email protected]