Ugandans: Fed Up With Museveni's Corruption

"We make a mistake by assuming that corruption is a management issue, yet it is a political issue. Before you talk about everything, it is the politicians that must first develop zero tolerance for corruption"
Zie Gariyo - Uganda Debt Network


Photo by Wandera w’Ouma

Is Uganda fighting a fruitless battle against corruption?

ELIAS BIRYABAREMA
The Monitor (Kampala) & All Africa.com

The latest corruption perception index (CPI) report, which showed a troubling decline in Uganda's performance, appears only to confirm the view that the country's leadership lacks the will to curb the evil, according to analysts.

In interviews conducted by Business & Finance last week, several people cited a contradiction in Uganda's poor performance that is coinciding with intense efforts by the government to fight the graft.

In its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2005 report, Transparency International (TI) gave Uganda a score of 2.5 out of 10, with the lowest score indicating the most widespread corruption.

In world rankings, out of the 159 countries surveyed this year, Uganda emerged 35th most corrupt. It was a distressing decline from the 2.6 score of last year, sparking off soul searching by analysts who are wondering why the country should decline at a time when government is giving ever more confident assurances that it is combating the graft.

In regional rankings (Africa), it (Uganda) is 17th most corrupt out of 44 countries surveyed while in East Africa, it follows Kenya as the most corrupt with Tanzania emerging as the cleanest.

The National Programme Manager for Transparency International Uganda Chapter, Mr Charles Mubbale, contended that while it is true that the government had stepped up efforts to combat corruption, real change in peoples' perception, which is the basis of the TI's score and rankings of countries, would not be immediate. Instead, he said, the impact would occur gradually, perhaps become reflected in CPI reports of five or so years to come.

"In countries where government and others have made substantial efforts to combat corruption with demonstrable results and where there is no improvement in a CPI score, there is a possibility that these efforts, however successful, have not been adequately communicated," he said.

Mr Zie Gariyo, who heads the Uganda Debt Network, an organisation that championed the fight against graft for nearly a decade, scoffed at the suggestion of better institutions and commitment by government to fight corruption.

"We make a mistake by assuming that corruption is a management issue, yet it is a political issue. Before you talk about everything, it is the politicians that must first develop zero tolerance for corruption," he said. If the top leadership in government still believes in use of patronage, largesse and rent seeking to mobilize political support, he argued, then even a thousand laws and institutions will never have any meaningful impact.

Last week, the on-going inquiry into the misuse of funds meant for fighting Malaria, Tuberculosis and reversing the HIV/Aids pandemic, revealed that top government officials irregularly received money meant for health care.

According to Gariyo, it would be a farce to start talking of laws and institutions when the people who establish them and are supposed to ensure that they work do not feel the need to act transparently.

"We certainly expect President Yoweri Museveni to punish [Jim] Muhwezi, but its highly uncertain he will," he said. Muhwezi has been accussed for mismanaging funds meant for fighting Malaria, Tuberculosis and reversing the HIV/Aids pandemic.

Caught red handed? Ugandan Major General Jim Muhwezi visits the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation site in Uganda
photo: Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Uganda's poor performance is a somewhat demonstration of the public's lack of confidence is government's anti-corruptions efforts.

Although President Museveni for instance, has made a public show of his readiness to deal with havens of corruption - the Uganda Revenue Authority, Police and Judiciary, no one has so far been prosecuted.

Last year, BoU paid nearly $20 million to city tycoon Basajja Balaba's creditors in a move that was largely perceived to be politically engineered. In a briefing paper about Uganda's performance on corruption, TI Uganda showed that the greatest impact of corruption is on the poor because it mainly disrupts mechanisms of delivering essential services to them.

Regionally, Uganda's dismal performance and the potential damage comes at a particularly sensitive time: the government is currently spending billions of shillings to burnish the country's image abroad and attract foreign investors.

Corruption spikes the costs of starting and running a business and many an investor would shun a country where he knows that competition doesn't take place on a level ground. The report thus is a stark reminder to policy makers that the ongoing campaign blitz to sell the country's potential to prospective investors should perhaps go lockstep with efforts to address the real and enormous challenge of graft perceived by Ugandans.