IGG wants her budget increased to Shs100b

The Inspector General of Government (IGG), Ms Beti Kamya, has said her office’s budget should be increased to at least Shs100 billion to enable her effectively implement the mandate of the institution.

The Inspectorate of Government is an independent institution charged with the responsibility of fighting corruption, abuse of authority and abuse of public office.

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Ms Kamya, who is also charged with the responsibility of receiving and attending to complaints from the public, told this publication yesterday that financial constraints had limited her office from effectively undertaking investigations, prosecutions and recovery of assets from corrupt officials. 

“One of the big issues that we want to bring to the attention of Cabinet and Parliament is our budget. The budget had stagnated at Shs53b in the past four years, of which 75 percent of the money would be spent on salaries, Pay-As-You-Earn, gratuity and utilities, including water and electricity,” she said during a press conference at her office in Kampala yesterday.

She added: “Only 10 percent of the budget would be spent on asset recovery, investigating cases and prosecuting corruption officials and our fleet of vehicles are very old. I have been discussing this issue with the Speaker, Ms Anita Among, and the Ministry of Finance and they have been positive. We need to be empowered financially so that we are able to recover stolen resources and take it to the public coffers.”

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Ms Kamya said although the budget for the Inspectorate of Government was increased to Shs79b this financial year, most of the money will be spent on salaries, construction of the IGG building, investigations, prosecution and recovering public resources from corrupt officials.  

Recently, the IGG said if her office was well facilitated, she would be able to recover between Shs100b and Shs200b per year. 

A survey commissioned by the inspectorate last year revealed that Uganda could be losing up to Shs20 trillion per year to corruption through undeclared taxes and utility user fees, corruption in procurement, inflated public payroll, and shoddy work, among other ways.

Ms Kamya also identified the intervention from the Judiciary as yet another setback in cracking down on corrupt officials.

“Recently, we wanted to investigate claims that there is a road contractor who was doing shoddy work on one of the roads upcountry, but the process was halted by court,” she said.