Govt sends officials to Singapore to learn how to fight corruption
The acting permanent secretary and accounting officer in the directorate of Ethics, Joel Wanjala (R), together with an official from Chandler Institute of Governance awarding participants from different MDAs. PHOTO/ SHABIBAH NAKIRIGYA
What you need to know:
- The Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Kamya said there is need to have mindset change from the grassroots because all the systems to contain corruption which claims Shs10 trillion of taxpayers’’ money annually cannot work well if all stakeholders are not on board.
The Government through Directorate for Ethics and Integrity has introduced a new assessment scorecard that will be used in observing corruption risks within its Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Speaking to journalists at the closure of a three-days training on the implementation of the new assessment tool in different government agencies in Kampala on Friday, the acting permanent secretary and accounting officer in the directorate, Mr Joel Wanjala, said the directorate has embarked on building a team of champions within different MDAs under the inter Agency Forum to ensure that the implementation is successful.
“We needed to benchmark with people who have fought corruption and have succeeded like Singapore which is now on the list of five top countries in fighting corruption,” he said.
According to him, there is need to follow the mechanisms the successful countries have used to fight corruption.
“We sent a team to study from Singapore and as government we have decided to pick up this idea and then urge the Chandler Institute of Governance which is charge of training official to come and train some of the officers from institutions fighting corruption,” he said.
He added that during the training they have been sensitized in fundamentals of corruption, the main cause and how they can deal with it.
“We have started with technical officers who will go and train others in their respective institutions. We will also target policy makers so that they can support where we need coming up with new policies,” he added.
The new initiative will be spearheaded by the Directorate for Ethics and Integrity as a lead agency under the theme implementation of zero tolerance to corruption mandate.
“The Directorate together with the office of the president we are mandated to implement the zero tolerance to corruption, and we are coordinating with all agencies that are fighting corruption in the country to move the fight first to make sure we stamp out corruption,” he said.
The Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Kamya said there is need to have mindset change from the grassroots because all the systems to contain corruption which claims Shs10 trillion of taxpayers’’ money annually cannot work well if all stakeholders are not on board.
“The community members largely promote and glorify corruption because they are on the ground and they do not ask about the accountabilities yet thy have evidence of misuse of taxpayers’ money,” she said.
