Thieves in NRM should be isolated - RDC
Bushenyi RDC Robert Atuhairwe speaking during the meeting on December 16, 2022. PHOTO/ ZADOCK AMANYISA
The Bushenyi Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Robert Atuhairwe has called for rebuking and isolation of government officials and other public servants who hide behind the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and use it as an excuse to steal taxpayers’ money.
According to him, some government officials who claim to support NRM have a tendency of stealing public money, something he said taints the image of the party which has been in power since 1986 under the stewardship of President Museveni as its national chairman.
Mr Atuhairwe said thieves in the party should be held accountable and dealt with as individuals and not on the basis of their party membership.
“It is not true that NRM tolerates corruption. That's why you see that our district Chairperson (NRM member) is here with us. So, nobody should use the excuse that they are privileged to be members of NRM and therefore, they can engage in corruption,” Mr Atuhairwe said Friday during a citizen – leaders’ accountability breakfast meeting organized by Western Ankole Civil Society (WACSOF) in Bushenyi-Ishaka municipality.
Describing the culprits as weevils using the party and the president’s name to get away with their criminal acts, Mr Atuhairwe added:” It is not true that those who steal public money are NRM. Those are just weevils, bad apples and they are few. Corruption is an action of individuals, not the entire society. In fact, you can't say Uganda is corrupt. No! These are individuals. They must be isolated,” he added
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The RDC also urged public officials to come clean about corruption allegations, arguing that those who confess or report to his office in confidence will be helped to have their mess sorted.
“If anybody is in charge of a department, managing taxpayer’s money, if you know there is a problem in your department, just come forward to me in confidence, we look at the problem, and if it can be rectified, well and good. We fix it and then we go to another chapter. It is not a matter of arresting people and throwing them in cells to kill their careers,” Mr Atuhairwe argued.
The objective of the meeting was to give Bushenyi citizens a platform to interact with leaders and build mechanisms for advancing public accountability.
The Bushenyi district chairperson, Mr Jafari Basajjabalaba asked the civil society organizations involved in fighting corruption to probe non-governmental organizations including churches, mosques and the civil society, arguing that they also use public funds.
“All public leaders - both in public and private sectors, especially in churches, mosques, NGOs, because all those people use public resources and they must be held accountable and exhibit transparency in utilization of those resources. Don’t necessarily look at civil servants as if they are the only culprits. We need to make sure that we look at everybody,” said Mr Basajjabalaba
Issues discussed during the meeting included absenteeism in public offices, poor performance of schools due to staffing gaps and poor infrastructure, poor roads, poor power connectivity, lack of information on public programmes, heavy taxation on businesses, etc, which are the main challenges facing residents in the district according to WACSOF Executive director, Mr Apollo Kakonge.
Government’s frontline anti-graft agencies on December 7 said in a combined effort and operations over the past three years got back into state coffers about Shs241b taken out by bureaucrats.
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