Prime
Govt recovers Shs3.6 billion from corrupt officials
Brig Henry Isoke, the head of State House Anti-Corruption Unit. PHOTO | BENSON TUMUSIIME
What you need to know:
- Since its inception in 2018, the unit has recovered and saved Shs55 billion (Shs10 billion in 2019, Shs17.5 billion in 2020, Shs20.6 billion in 2021, Shs3.3 billion in 2022 and Shs3.6 billion in 2023).
The State House Anti-Corruption Unit says it has managed to recover Shs3.6 billion from government thieving officials working in different departments this year.
This means that the Unit has registered an increase in recovery from Shs3.3 billion of last year.
Since its inception in 2018, the unit has recovered and saved Shs55 billion (Shs10 billion in 2019, Shs17.5 billion in 2020, Shs20.6 billion in 2021, Shs3.3 billion in 2022 and Shs3.6 billion in 2023).
Ms Mariam Natasha, the public relations officer at the Unit, said they receive on average about 200 complaints including; abuse of office public assets, conflict of interest, land-related disputes, nepotism, personation, tax evasion, forgery and uttering false arguments, among others.
Since 2018, about 512,102 complaints have been registered by the unit and 521 accused persons have been arraigned in court, out of these 282 are civil servants (48 are officials from the central government, 170 are local government officials and 64 are statutory officials) and 239 are private persons.
In addition, 87 persons have been convicted and out of these; 59 are public officials whereas 31 are private persons
Ms Natasha said that this year they have managed to recover these public funds from different local governments, the education sector and government programs such as iron sheets and parish development models among others.
“These recoveries have mostly been from suspects, who are already undergoing court processes,” Ms Natasha said on Monday.
However, she added that the unit faces a lot of challenges such as heavy workload and the failure of the whistleblowers to follow up the case as eyewitnesses.
Mr Joseph Muramuzi, an officer from the Inspectorate of Government (IG), said: “Many citizens have looked at the war against corruption as a fight for only the anti-corruption agencies. We are now bringing it to the people and other stakeholders to inform them that when you are fighting a war, you cannot leave it to a few, we have to muscle up and join forces to take on this work together.”
Mr Xavier Ejoyi, the Action aid country director, echoed the need to involve citizens in fighting against corruption.
“The role of Action Aid and other civil societies is to support citizens to lead the fight against corruption. Parliament should enact the whistleblower’s protection act to ensure that they are protected and facilitated,” he said.
