The shortcoming Uganda faces as a result of corruption was recently highlighted by a significant monetary loss the country recorded.
According to the Inspectorate of Government in the East African country, over Sh30 billion was lost to corruption in the last fiscal, with 2,377 graft complaints received during the period.
The Inspectorate General of Government, Hon. Beti Kamya Turwomwe, said that the head office in Kampala received 1,260 of the complaints, with the remainder divided over its 16 other offices around the nation, as seen in the Monitor newspaper.
The majority of the complaints were focused on, among other things, nonpayment of pensions, service delivery delays, and staff issues.
“About 91.8% of these were sanctioned for investigation, 2.7% were referred to the authorities, while 0.1% were declined because they did not meet the merit in investigatable cases,” she revealed to the press at the Ugandan media center in the capital city.
“By the end of the financial year, decisions were yet to be taken on 5.4% of the complaints,” she added. The Inspectorate General also disclosed that 18 of the 852 cases investigated, were of high-profile individuals.
“We also recommended the recovery of Shs17 billion to be consolidated funds from persons found culpable in various corruption offenses, but the overall recovery of funds that the country had lost to corruption stood at Shs30 billion,” Hon. Beti stated.
She indicated that a minimum of 251 administrative sections were issued against public officials, and 26 of these were to be punished for having participated in corrupt practices.
“The Inspectorate persecuted and concluded 55 cases in the courts of law. A total of 26 convictions were realized, leading to a conviction rate of 47.3%. Of the 55 concluded cases, 9 were acquitted, 18 withdrawn for various reasons, such as settling the matter out of court, while 2 were dismissed,” the inspectorate general revealed.
Speaking further to the press, she revealed that 26,541 of the 32,617 government officials declared their wealth in line with the leadership code act.
The verification and investigations led to the recommendation of 61 public officials to be prosecuted before the Leadership Code Tribunal.