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 

 

Quality Education should be a priority in Uganda

Government should prioritize Quality in Education Sector for the next 50years.

By Adellah Agaba

Malcolm X, the eloquent, inspirational and leading figure of American Civil Rights Movement once noted that, ‘education is the great equalizer.’ This cannot be more relevant to Uganda’s economy, which suffers from a stratified society with expansive class differences in socio-economic access, manifested in the huge disparities in human development indices. 

In 1997, the Government launched the Universal Primary Education (education for all); this was part of the many recommendations of the EPRC 1989 commitments within the Government White Paper 1992. Key of the objectives of the UPE Programme included making education equitable in order to eliminate the disparities and inequalities, establishing, providing and maintaining quality education as the basis for promoting the necessary human resource development and ensuring that education is affordable by the majority of Ugandans by providing initially, the minimum necessary facilities and resources, and progressively the optimal facilities, to enable every child to enter and remain in school until they complete the primary school education cycle.

Ten years later, the Universal Secondary Education policy came into effect in 2007, committing government to provide free secondary education up to completion of O-level. The policy was implemented in a phased manner beginning with senior one in 2007. These two programmes (UPE and USE) have fundamentally impacted on the equity and quality in both positive and negative ways.

Enrolment at primary level has been steadily growing since the introduction of Universal Primary Education in 1997 and Universal Secondary Education in 2007. In 1996, just before the introduction of UPE national total enrollment stood at approximately 3million and significantly rose to 5 million in one year and later to about 7.6 million by 2007. Total enrollment in primary education is currently estimated at 8.7 Million pupils. Secondary school enrollment has been following a similar trend hugely due to the introduction of USE in 2007. Registered enrollment in 2000 was 518,931 significantly rising to 842,683 by 2007 and currently stands at 1,570,000.

A number of efforts have been undertaken by government to enhance learning facilities to cope up with the increasing pupil and student intake in both primary and secondary levels. This has included increasing the number of classrooms, recruiting more teachers and bringing on board private secondary schools. However, there are low completion rates, high grade repetition and significant numbers of drop-outs. These facts seem to indicate either that the schools are not teaching students well or that the curriculum is irrelevant to their needs. In many cases, formal school curricula have been criticized for being unrelated to the conditions and demands of life in rural areas.

The current education policy focuses on expanding the functional capacity of education structures and reducing on the inequalities of access to education between sexes, geographical areas and social classes in Uganda. It advocates for redistribution of resources vis-à-vis reforming the education sector.

Government in the next 50years needs to strengthen the existing platforms for citizens’ involvement in the administration of education institutions especially at the lower levels including school management committees, parent-teachers association and boards of governors. Policy formulation should be consultative enough to allow for citizen/parents’ participation at all levels and implementation should be participatory to improve on quality in the education sector.

 If a country has poor education systems, then there will be a skills mismatch between what’s offered and what’s required in the labor market, or there will be no skills at all which hampers entrepreneurship and national development.

The author works with Uganda Debt Network

aagaba@udn.or.ug