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Uganda: Donors' Outcry No Longer Makes Sense
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The Monitor (Kampala)
EDITORIAL
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
During the annual East Africa summit for the Public Accounts Committees in the region the donors repeated their cry about lack of accountability on the part of government. They expressed "grave concern" over the government failure to implement findings of the commissions of inquiry into corruption.
According to the World Bank report 2005, Uganda loses Shs500b to corruption per year. This means that if it was not for corruption, the ministry of Works would not be crying for $40m to construct a new bridge to replace the collapsing Owen Falls Dam bridge in Jinja, the key link to the eastern part of the country and to the sea.
We have had many commissions of inquiry into corruption which have implicated many government officials who have stolen money. People who took bribes and even accepted on record that they did, during the military helicopter purchase were later turned into state witnesses instead of putting them on trial.
There were commissions of inquiry into the Uganda Revenue Authority, police, Global Fund etc. There are also yearly reports of the Auditor General of government and the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee. So the failure to punish the corrupt is not due to lack of evidence, but the will to do so.
The only thing we keep hearing is high sounding government rhetoric especially by the President on how the corrupt will face trouble. Another thing we have been hearing for years and which we shall continue to hear for years to come is the donors' outcry about the government's failure to end corruption.
One thing seems clear: it's not the NRM government's principal concern to end corruption. One of the institutions the President loves most is the army. But we have just seen a report showing thousands of ghost soldiers on the national army payroll. If the President cannot end corruption in the institution he probably loves most, it would be self-deception to expect his government to end corruption elsewhere.
But the donors are not innocent either. Besides their annual outcry about corruption, what have they done to make the government answerable? Crying out every year just does not make much sense. Take action and ensure governments are accountable to the poor masses they are supposed to serve.
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Stop the excuse that if aid is withheld, it's the poor citizens who will suffer. The citizens still suffer because the aid never reaches them since government thieves steal it.
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