How IGG performed last year

Aggrieved parties are overwhelming the Office of the Inspectorate of Government (IG) with cases that can be solved faster by other mediators, the Inspector General of Government (IGG), has said.

While highlighting the issue of grievance handling in an October 10 press release, the IGG, Ms Beti Olive Kamya, said people tend to report cases to officers at the very top without exhausting avenues that are at the source.

“For instance, officers protesting victimisation or delayed payment of salaries tend to run to the chief administrative officer (CAO) instead of engaging the human resource officer first,” read the press statement from the IG’s office.

Officers were instead advised, “to always handle grievances on source,” and that resolving complaints at source, particularly in ministries, departments, and agencies, is important for quick resolution of complaints and enhancing service delivery.

The remarks come weeks after the IG’s office commemorated the International Ombudsman Day observed annually, every second Thursday of October. This year’s theme was: “Here to hear you”.

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Citing achievements in the past year, the IGG cited the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to resolve at least 500 organisational disputes.

She named some of the institutions like the Uganda Cancer Institute, Uganda Investments Authority, Makerere University, and various local governments that used alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve their issues quickly. 

Some of the cases manifest in the form of non-payment of salaries, pension, gratuity, compensation, and employment disputes such as irregularities in recruitment, promotion, interdiction, unfair termination, and victimisation.

In its July 2023 to June 2024 report, the other achievement registered by the IGG was to resolve more than 2,000 matters.

“The interventions resulted in recoveries and money paid to individual complainants in the form of unpaid salaries, gratuity, pension, and other benefits. The total was Shs15b (equivalent to $14,109,589),” the report read.

Ms Kamya in her Ombudsman Day commemoration message said: “If public officials and citizens adhere to the rule of law, there will be efficient delivery of public services in Uganda. Public officers hold public offices in the trust of the people. They must therefore respect the public and must serve them diligently and without delay.”

She added: “The Inspectorate of Government is raising awareness to the entire population of Uganda to demand quality services as a constitutional right. We call upon the public to say no to poor quality service and report to the Inspector General of Government when they have not been treated properly.”

Uganda lost at least Shs30 billion to corruption and registered about 2,377 graft-related complaints in the financial year 2023/2024, Kamya said back in September.

She has on many occasions, expressed her frustrations over corruption, saying the vice continues to hinder effective delivery of services.

In the IG bi-annual report released a few months ago, the ombudsman named inadequate digitaisation, inadequate staffing, inadequate transport equipment due to an old fleet of vehicles, weak systems to address maladministration and low enumeration of the staff as some of the major challenges that her team faces in fighting corruption.

She also cited failure to enforce the Leadership Code and create awareness among the government officials as a major challenge in the war against corruption.

Speaking to Monitor yesterday, Mr Marlon Agaba, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, gave mixed reactions to the institution’s one-year performance.

“They have done quite well in the areas of holding meetings to resolve ombudsman issues, bridging communication gaps with citizens by introducing toll-free lines for people to report cases as well as having a strong online presence interacting with citizens unlike before where they were closed off,’ Mr Agaba said.

With a 2021 report by IG saying that Uganda loses up to Shs9.1 trillion to corruption annually, Mr Agaba said that the institution is still struggling to recover stolen money, a major setback.

Ombudsman 

An ombudsman is a mediator between the government and its citizens and in their function as mediators ensure that citizens’ matters relating to public offices are addressed thereby promoting good governance.