1.9Billion for MPs to consult on the Marriage and Divorce Bill can instead change the face of service delivery in Uganda.

1.9Billion for MPs to consult on the Marriage and Divorce Bill can instead change the face of service delivery in Uganda.

By Adellah Agaba

After a five-year lull, the Divorce and Marriage Bill was brought to Parliament, kicking off a storm. The bill has met stiff opposition from not only a section of the legislators, but religious leaders and the public at large with a fear that some clauses will undermine the intent of the institution of marriage itself. All this ignited debate in all foras including the media forcing the parliamentarians to go on an early Easter break to consult their constituencies.

Now to kick off this process, each MP will receive Shs5 million to facilitate them in consulting their constituents on the controversial Marriage and Divorce Bill. The President wrote to the Speaker of Parliament instructing the House Commission and the Clerk to Parliament to effect the payment of the money to the legislators in time for the consultations.

This means that over 1.9 Billion shillings will be dished out to the 386 Honourable Members of Parliament to consult in their constituencies. At this stage one wonders what the honourables are paid a salary to do. In my own understanding, they are paid to legislate for their constituencies which of course consultations is part of the process.

The people they are consulting don’t even have a meal for the day yet 5Million is being spent in a process that has already shown a lot of discontentment in the general public. The question stays as to whether this discussion is necessary at the expense of tax payers’ money!

Let’s see what this 1.9Billion can do in changing the face of service delivery in the country. The state of our roads here in the city centre before you even look far is so alarming to the extent that we have fish ponds in the city centre not forgetting the poor drainage system. The constituencies to be consulted some don’t have drugs in the health centre IIs and IIIs. The conditions especially in the maternity wards are shocking. Our education system is still lacking with pupils still studying under trees in these same constituencies where consultations are going to take place. The teachers and health workers are crying on low salaries and delayed payments which affect their cost of living and of course their morale to boost service delivery. This money can make an overhaul in service delivery!

Are the consultations a priority looking at the state of our services in the country?  Whichever way you look at it, spending 1.9Billion tax payers’ money on consultations does not indicate value for money and we hope that the “Honourables” will be able to account for the money after this whole process is done.

It should be remembered that this is not the first time money is being dished out to influence a stalling process in parliament. The same was done to amend the constitution on issues of term limits, and the most recent one at the beginning of 2011 when MPs were given 20million each for campaigns in order to pass a 600million supplementary budget.

The sad part about all this is that the tax payer will always pay for such expenses and get no services. Like they say don’t blame the player, blame the game.  Good luck to the Members of Parliament as they consult their constituencies on the hot issues in the Marriage and Divorce Bill, hoping there will be Value for Money!

The writer works with Uganda Debt Network

aagaba@udn.or.ug

Scrapping off bail not a solution to eradicate corruption

Scrapping off Bail not a solution to the fight against Corruption

By Adellah Agaba

During the 27^th NRM Liberation anniversary celebrations at Nyakasanga play ground in Kasese, His Excellency renewed his call for scrapping off bail for officials suspected in capital offences stating that it hampers the fight against corruption. He stated that the Judiciary is making his work difficult by giving bail to every suspect.

As much as we agree with you Mr. President on making the corrupt lose appetite of stealing government public funds meant for service delivery, scrapping or denying bail to the suspects will not reduce corruption levels unless it’s complimented by other factors.

The right to Bail is based on the presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a competent Court of Law.  S. 77 of the Magistrates Courts Act states that on an application for bail, Court considers some factors to determine whether or not to grant bail. These include nature and gravity of offence, severity of punishment, accused person’s antecedents ( as far as are known) whether s/he has a fixed place of stay; possibility of interfering with prosecution witnesses, advanced age of the accused, whether s/he is  sole bread winner of the family, his/her role in the community. The entitlement to apply for bail is a fundamental right and freedom which is protected by the Constitution, denial of which amounts to robbing the suspects’ fundamental rights. Bail can only be scrapped or reviewed by an Act of Parliament and the judiciary will have no choice but to follow suit.

The Presidents pronouncement came after most of the suspects in the theft of billions of money meant for service delivery were granted bail by the courts of law. Recent corruption scandals opened citizens’ eyes to the growing levels of corruption in Uganda as billions of shillings were stolen and misappropriated by the public officials. The Pensions scandal in the Ministry of Public Service with the loss of 100 billion shillings meant for retired public servants, the rot in Prime Minister’s Office and matters are not helped by the fact that Uganda’s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranking by Transparency International revealed Uganda’s position at 130 out of 176 countries with a score of 29.

However, scrapping and denial of bail alone will not reduce the high levels of corruption that has made service delivery in hospitals, schools, roads hard to achieve. Government efforts towards elimination of corruption must include a policy to improve salaries of government workers. The Police and teaching remain the least paid and most ridiculed profession, living in squalid conditions in an attempt to make ends meet. The judiciary has to be well remunerated in order to dispense off their work with transparency and to avoid bribes at all levels.

Selective prosecution must be condemned because you cannot simply pick one person and leave others. Relying on selective prosecution to eliminate corruption and to act as a warning for other people in influential positions is a myth.  

The fight against corruption is not a preserve of government institutions. Fighting corruption involves a concerted effort from all stakeholders. There is need for a quick passing of the Anti-corruption amendment Bill so that officials implicated in these corruption scandals are effectively brought to book, and all their assets acquired from the stolen money are confiscated and liquidated to replace the misappropriated funds in respective offices. This way, tax payers’ hard earned money is not used to pay off other peoples’ fraudulent losses but instead be used in ensuring proper service delivery in the country.

The writer works with Uganda Debt Network

aagaba@udn.or.ug

Government shd disclose the Source of refunded money to donors.

Government should disclose the source of refunded money to donors

By: Adellah Agaba

The year 2012 was one that opened citizens’ eyes to the growing levels of corruption in Uganda as many corruption scandals in billions of shillings were unearthed. The Pensions scandal in the Ministry of Public Service with the loss of 100 billion shillings meant for retired public servants was discovered and up to now more details on the rot are emerging.

As if that was not enough, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) one of the most respected offices in monitoring implementation of government programmes astounded Ugandans when big chunks of money went missing and could not be accounted for by the accounting officers. This  arose out of the Auditor General’s report released in October last year with a special audit report indicating that up to Shs50 billion was misappropriated by staff in the Prime Minister’s office. The misappropriated funds were intended for post-war recovery in Northern Uganda under the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP). Matters are not helped by the fact that Uganda’s 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) ranking by Transparency International revealed Uganda’s position at 130 out of 176 countries with a score of 29.

Not surprisingly the corruption scandals raised eyebrows in the donor world including Norway, Ireland, Denmark and United Kingdom, among others, which led to donor suspension of aid to Uganda. This was a big blow to a country that has a large part of its national budget funded by donors. Mixed reactions from the public could not go un noticed as everyone was concerned as to what was going to happen to the different programmes in health, peace and restoration, education, mention them that run on donor money.

Alas, there came good news! Depending on how you look at it. The Ugandan government refunded 4Miliion Euros (14bn) donor aid money stolen by some government officials to the Irish government to restore the broken relationship. Unfortunately, reports indicate that Ireland has announced that the suspension of its bilateral aid to Uganda will remain in place until officials are confident that controls have been put in place to prevent misappropriation of aid money from their country.

 

Something the Government of Uganda did to restore confidence in the donors and the public instead raised so many questions that have not been answered up to now. Where did the government get all this kind of money to refund the Irish government? Which budget line did they use? Which sectors have been affected by this refund? But the biggest of them all is that, if the government can afford to refund all this money, do we after all need donor money? It was indicated that the money was got from government’s consolidated account. Isn’t that tax payers’ money meant for improved service delivery? 

As activists we demand that in the interest of transparency and accountability the government should clearly disclose the source of the money refunded to the Irish government when teachers are still earning low salaries, health facilities still in bad shape, roads full of pot holes, and the education sector still lacking school facilities and structures in most districts, which are all summed up as regressive service delivery.

We also call for quick passing of the Anti-corruption amendment Bill so that officials implicated in these corruption scandals are effectively brought to book, and all their assets acquired from the stolen money are confiscated and liquidated to replace the misappropriated funds in respective offices. This way, tax payers’ hard earned money is not used to pay off other peoples’ fraudulent losses but instead be used in ensuring proper service delivery in the country.

The Writer works with Uganda Debt Network

aagaba@udn.or.ug

Hold Thieves of Public Funds Accountable

It is Every Ugandan’s duty to hold thieves of Public funds accountable

By Adellah Agaba

Corruption in Uganda remains pervasive, with Transparency International’s Annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2011 ranking Uganda at 143^rd place out of 182 countries with a score of 2.4. Previous compilations of the index between 2002 and 2010 indicate that Ugandans perceive corruption to be endemic and on the rise.

The pervasiveness of corruption in Uganda is partly attributed to citizens’ apathy and passiveness towards corruption. Despite the elaborate legal and regulatory framework to fight corruption, many Ugandans remain ignorant of the provisions of these laws, and cannot utilize them to contribute to the fight against corruption.

Recent scandals are a cause of alarm. It’s shocking at how government institutions are rotting due to the cancer that has eaten up all the working systems. Ugandans are getting used to the disease that it no longer surprises them that a public servant is causing a big financial loss to the economy! 

In the Prime Ministers’ office the financial loss of over Ugx 50bn is just a tip on the ice bag of the rot that is taking place in the OPM and causing the country losses through donor withdrawals. The pension’s scandal in the Ministry of Public Service is more shocking considering the overwhelming numbers of over 1000 Ghost pensioners which has caused a financial loss of over UGX 169bn tax payers’ money. Interestingly, my own father was published in the Daily monitor, 1^st October 2012, as one of the alleged ghost beneficiary from the scam. However, shock could be seen in my eyes having my dad called “Nabwire Winfred”. Even thieves are smart when it comes to forgery; the alleged beneficiaries that reported to CID had same complaints. The ID project has since gone under the carpet! We can’t mention all the scandals and exhaust them. What has become of our beautiful pearl of Africa?

What do we blame on this rampant increase in corruption? Lack of political will to fight it, low wages and salaries in public institutions, weak monitoring and accountability systems, or the passive attitude of the citizens on issues of corruption? The state of the roads in the country, health centres that are rotting away with no sufficient drugs, the poor quality of the education system are indicators of increased levels of corruption that we as Ugandans need to fight or else Uganda in the next 50 years might not be what we envisage.

I commend the work being done by the Uganda Police Force in trying to bring officials especially in the Ministry of Public Service to book and recommend that the same be done in other ministries; we just can’t tell what dirt can be discovered. The Police should further provide protection to whistleblowers to encourage more Ugandans to report any incidences of misuse of public resources because collective responsibility will help flash out officials who are making it impossible for Uganda to move forward. If we are to make an analysis, you will notice that if all the dirt is unearthed and proper financial management and accountability is established, Uganda can actually pay its own bills without depending on the donor community. Citizens need to join hands and hold the government accountable or we shall see our economy rot before our own eyes. For God and my Country!

The writer works with Uganda Debt Network.

aagaba@udn.or.ug