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Uganda: Forget All About Rising Food Prices - It is Corruption Stupid
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The Monitor (Kampala)
COLUMN
20 May 2008
Posted to the web 20 May 2008
Fredrick Masiga
Over the weekend a highly placed official of the ministry of Trade called me complaining that the Daily Monitor's headline on Friday, Govt sets prices for commodities - was erroneous and gave a wrong impression.
The official said that the government had not any set prices and that because the economy was liberalised prices would remain a function of market forces.
The official wanted the Daily Monitor to run a correction of the headline while insisting the content of the story was correct to the dot.
The reason for the price list, released by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority - PPDA, is a remedial measure to catch thieving technocrats who connive with government suppliers to balloon budgets through inflated prices.
What crossed my mind then was that perhaps the news editor at the Daily Monitor felt animated about the price list hoping that even if PPDA had only issued it as an indicative catalogue the government should put an end to the current trend of retail prices in the country.
The editor's feeling at the time is perhaps representative of the life stories of most Ugandans whose meagre earnings and savings are being swallowed by rising prices for basic goods and services.
Some commentators have argued that the reason for rising prices goes beyond what the government of Uganda can do pinning it on rising global fuel price that has escalated costs on transport, global scarcity of food (Read cereals), weakening US dollar against major currencies, long standing man made and natural catastrophes in Sub Saharan Africa and most recently natural calamities in China and Burma.
But this defeatist shortlist only absolves the government from its failure to provide some form of food security to its people and all other basic public utilities cheaply.
For most Ugandans living under abject conditions, deliberately engineered corruption across government centres is the major cause of their plight.
Public procurement is the most used conduit of financial fraud where huge sums of public funds are easily transferred without a trace from the treasury to private accounts of officials purporting to do government work.
According to the World Bank Shs510 billion is stolen annually from government coffers through fraudulent procurement processes since 2005.
Well, that kind of numerical value does not mean anything to most Ugandans who hardly spend a single dollar a day but then look at the stone cold reality of this thieving in a different context.
Shs510 billion can more than 30 times finance a complete reconstruction and repair of the 900 kilometre road network in Kampala city including flyovers and underground channels. Or still, what if Shs510 billion was distributed equally to 510 Universal Primary Schools; how would it affect the lives of more than 10 million pupil?
So, rising food prices apart, corruption is the top dog. It increases poverty, fleeces government of revenue and reduces the ability for entrepreneurial and profitable engagement consequently even slight inflationary movements significantly affect the spending habits of low income earners.
Nordic countries described by Transparency International as the least corrupt economies also have the highest cost of living including taxes in the world but their citizens are comfortable because their governments provide most of the public goods and one has only to spend on personal effects and leisure.
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That is perhaps the reason why the news editor was headline happy with the PPDA list hoping that the government will come to his rescue.
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