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Theft and waste of public funds will be the death of us unless…

Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa (right) receives the 2023/2024 Financial Year audit report from Auditor General Edward Akol at Parliament on January 15, 2025. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA

What you need to know:

  • Something has got to give and the onus is on all of us to start where we are and with what has been given to us to manage on behalf of our country. It might sound cliché and simplistic but it’s still true that change begins with you, the man in the mirror

The scale of theft and wastage of public funds in Uganda is deplorable and should have us all extremely riled up.

Some of the findings that the Auditor General revealed on Wednesday, January 15 when he released the 2023/2024 Audit Report tantamount to national heist and plunder. According to the report, government overpaid pensioners to the tune of Shs31.2 billion in the last financial year. So 3,695 pensioners received more gratuity and pension benefits than they were entitled to.

That aside, the Parish Development Model also opened a wide portal for theft of public funds. The report shows that nearly Shs900 billion dished out in the poverty alleviation scheme was forked out using fake security documents. And that whereas all the money was supposed to be sent through the Wendi platform, more than Shs41.7 billion was disbursed outside the management system.

Some savings and credit cooperatives were found to have undertaken ghost projects and some saccos didn’t have any physical offices to ease tracing them. There’s more. Vital drugs worth Shs316.65 billion expired.

The report reveals that during the year under review, Covid-19 vaccines, ARVs , test kits and related supplies amounting to Shs316.65 billion were expired and viable. What a waste! The report also revealed that about Shs150 billion in grant money meant for constructing secondary schools and roads remains unused.

There were concerns about the underutilisation of the national budget. The Auditor General also reported a 2.2 percent growth in Uganda’s external debt, rising from Shs53.19 trillion, an increase he said is primarily driven by borrowing from multilateral creditors. Borrowing has increased from Shs33.06 trillion to Shs35.1 trillion The situation is dire and we will pay for all this waste and theft dearly.

Well unless all the perpetrators of such waste are brought to book, stopped, made to pay and act as examples for those with intentions to do the same. Just because this state of affairs highligted in this most recent report is not particularly new doesn’t negate the gravity of the situation nor that we shouldn’t normalise or glorify those who get away with it or giddily wait our turn to be part of the heist. We are robbing ourselves. Some mileage has been achieved in apprehending and prosecuting the culprits, however, we need to do more.

But do we have enough conviction to deal with it? Is the political will adequate or is talking about theft and waste of public funds a waste of breath and time? Something has got to give and the onus is on all of us to start where we are and with what has been given to us to manage on behalf of our country. It might sound cliché and simplistic but it’s still true that change begins with you, the man in the mirror.