Last Friday was Anti-Corruption day. Corruption is a big challenge within the country and it is increasing daily.
Zurah Nakabugo spoke to MARLON AGABA, the information and communications manager at the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda (ACCU), about the challenges and general situation of corruption in Uganda.
The judiciary and police top the most corrupt institutions each year, within the country, yet there are other public institutions such as Unra which are cited in big scandals like Katosi which lost billions of shillings, but are not listed among the top corrupt institutions. Why is that?
It is mainly about the methodology of research used by Transparency International for people to understand corruption findings. Corruption perception index is about people’s awareness or observations on the level of corruption.
Police and judiciary always top the list of corrupt institutions because people interface with these institutions more regularly and they are aware of different methods of corruption in these institutions, unlike in other institutions such as Unra, IGG and other public institutions which are limited to people and they don’t know what is happening behind closed doors.
When corruption perception is done, they ask people about corruption and different methods used, which becomes easy for them to identify police and judiciary since they always go there and know how police officers receive bribes to open up cases or release people on bond.
Aren’t there other methodologies used in identifying corrupt institutions?
There is the East African bribery index, which is used in all East African countries, where they use professional research. Here, they get a sample of the population and interview them basing on the questionnaire, such as ‘what do you think is the most corrupt institution in Uganda, and why?’
What is the general overview of corruption within the country?
It is increasing and it is a worrying trend, according to reports coming out daily. Even in the corruption and East African perception index, the trends are going up. The inspectorate of government has data tracking mechanism, like for that of 2014 which showed that more than 70 per cent of people had paid bribes to access judicial services.
There is also soft corruption that people don’t know, but use it daily, such as bribes to vote someone and buying sweets for children to give fellow children during school campaigns to vote for them.
Which other forms of disguised corruption are in use?
Like coming late to work, where you cheat your employer of some working hours; using institution or government resources like vehicles, land and other properties for your private businesses. Bribing to secure jobs for your relatives, when they don’t even qualify, and others.
But we have never seen people prosecuted against such cases, yet they are common.
Such cases do come and are forwarded to Inspectorate of Government to investigate. These include influencing contract awards, although they are not taken seriously, yet they are killing our country and need to be addressed seriously.
What happened to the leadership code; leaders were required to declare their wealth.
The previous leadership code had challenges with implementation and several court cases invalidated some of the cases, and there was need to have a tribunal.
Right now we are in the process of amending the Leadership Code Act. ACCU has been spearheading the call to put up a tribunal so that when the inspectorate of government investigates you, they can then send the findings to a tribunal which can sit and pass a verdict.
What are the challenges of fighting corruption?
There are several challenges, and at different levels. When you look at the government level, most institutions don’t have enough funding to handle such cases. Actually, there was a Human Rights Watch report that came out and highlighted issues of influence and lack of political will. As in some cases, the political wing doesn’t have the will to prosecute those cases.
Of course even at civil society, the funding we have sometimes isn’t enough, but another unfortunate bit is the whole issue of apathy. If the people are not involved in the fight against corruption, it becomes hard.
What does ACCU do?
First, ACCU is a non-government organization whose mandate is advocacy for good governance with specific interest in anti-corruption work. It brings together 70 civil society organisations, individuals, religious leaders, academicians, media practitioners and key institutions involved in the fight against corruption in Uganda.
It was formed in January 1999 and registered as an NGO under the NGO Statute through which anti-corruption activists can enhance their capacity to tackle corruption and build a strong voice and force that can effectively engage government on issues of corruption.
It has been lobbying and advocating for appropriate anti-corruption national policies, punitive measures, research and exposure of corrupt activities, as well as the capacity building, coalition building and mobilization of the Ugandan citizens to fight corruption.
zurah@observer.ug