Justice Ogoola decries decline in professional standards, morals in Uganda

As the country continues to grapple with a high rate of corruption, former principal Judge in the High Court of Uganda, Justice James Ogoola is concerned about the rate at which professional standards and morals have declined in Uganda.

According to Justice Ogoola, this decline has built a culture of corruption, where professionals, such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants and religious leaders, have abandoned their professional standards.

“The priest, the sheikh, the bishop, the pastor, the prophet, and the apostle, many of them have thrown out their own strict standards of their profession,” Justice Ogoola said.

He was speaking during the national integrity award organized by ActionAid International Uganda in partnership with Transparency International, Anti-corruption Coalition in Kampala on December 4.

Justice Ogoola said “the normal thing today is to steal, to lie and to boast about the scale and the weight of our personal corruption. We boast in word and we boast in deed, shamelessly, without any scintilla of guilt or regret,” he wondered.

According to a survey conducted by the Inspectorate of Government, the Ugandan government loses Shs20 trillion every year through corruption.

To combat corruption, Justice Ogoola called for a return to the strict standards of professionalism and a renewed commitment to integrity.

 Some of the people that won the integrity awards include, Betty Aol Acan Woman MP Representative for Gulu City, Mr Bob Owiny District Councilor at Soroti District among others.

The Country Director of ActionAid International Uganda, Mr Xavier Ejoyi, said that the national integrity awards are aimed at recognising men and women in public service with distinction and integrity.

Mr Ejoyi said that the organisation focuses on fighting poverty and injustice in communities.

“Action Aid believes  that citizens groups that may not be formally organised but working together, activists, the media, private sector, religious organisations and government of Uganda ministries, departments and agencies play an important role and that together we can make a significant impact on addressing issues of corruption in this country,” he said.

He noted that corruption keeps the most vulnerable communities in poverty and to improve the livelihood of people, corruption must be kicked out of the country. 

Nation Media Group Uganda's Managing Director, Ms Susan Nsibirwa, in a panel discussion said that the media plays a crucial role in the fight against corruption.

“If you look back far enough, corruption wasn’t even called corruption, it was something else, undocumented. What we have today is the result of years of normalised corruption, so deeply ingrained that we have become desensitised to it,” Ms Nsibirwa said.

She also recognizes the role of social media in the fight against corruption saying that citizens have taken up the role through social media campaigns against corruption.

“The social media campaigns against corruption show that there is a growing generation of people who will not sit back and see taxpayers' money being wasted,” she said.

 The Director Education, Research and Advocacy at the Inspectorate of Government, Mr James Onying said that high profile people are using junior officer’s accounts to steal the money.

“This junior officer withdraws the money and gives it to his boss and is given a token of appreciation and he will be happy. So there is no evidence of this high profile person. When the Inspector General of Government (IGG) comes and investigates you find all the vouchers and everything in the names of the junior officers,” Mr Onying said.

He noted that the office of IGG has had many cases where big sums of money are put on junior officers' accounts and  fail to get evidence pinning the high profile people.