Can the public get to know facts about refugee scandal?

Uganda has positioned herself so vibrantly in the management of refugees. Uganda stands out prominently as the largest host refugee country in Africa. Indeed Uganda is a benchmark for many of the refugee programmes carried out in Africa. At all costs, Uganda should not lose the trust and confidence of the donor community that do a large funding of all refugee programs in the country.

In February 2018, the United Nations Country Team brought it to the attention of government and in particular, the Office Of The Prime Minister (OPM), about the mismanagement of refugee funds. Consequently, four officials in OPM were interdicted. This was meant to create a passage for investigations, which was indeed good. It is now coming to two years since the investigations began. The stakeholders on the different refugee management platforms and the public are interested in having good knowledge on a number of pertinent issues.

There are a number of implementing agencies in the management of refugees. When Uganda hosted The Solidarity Summit, it cast Uganda in very glowing lights. Payments and pledges were made by donor agencies to the cause of the refugees. Have these agencies been tasked to provide accountability of all the donor funds that were received from this summit? If not, then the Auditor General, should investigate the receipt, disbursement and utilisation of the same funds.

Another issue that raised concern was the comprehensive corruption revolving around food assistance and rations. Can the public and the donor community be told which agencies are involved in the distribution of food assistance? It was further mentioned in the media that the refugee figures were inflated to the advantage of the staff and officials that manage the refugee docket.

Not long ago, OPM, was highlighted and promoted as having been successful in installing and managing a Refugee Information Management System (RIMS), which the National Identification Registration Authority (NIRA) did benchmark with at its inception. If RIMS is a robust and vibrant information management system, the figures inflated of the refugees can be traced to an individual officer.

Another of the issue that riled the donor community was the issue of refugees paying bribes to register, receive land, leave settlements and at times compelled to pay a fee for cross-border visits. Issuance of land to refugees is supposed to be free and if there is evidence against officers in this practice, they should be brought to book so that the country does not lose the benefits that come in as a host country at large. Government land should never be misappropriated for personal gain.

The donor community was too dissatisfied with the manner in which scholarships for refugees were handled. Can the public and donor community get to know the different agencies and offices that manage the provision of scholarships to refugees? These and more are some of the challenges that are casting Uganda in bad light.

Percy Brian Mulamba,
[email protected]