Will Museveni walk his talk against corruption, illicit financial flows through his sixth term?

While President Museveni has constantly defended his course of action and reasons for appointing particular individuals to take up leadership positions despite their past questionable record on performance, some analysts believe that appointing into the public sector individuals earlier implicated and some convicted on corruption charges could undermine the well thought move to weed out corruption and illicit financial flows in the Country.
In his recent appointments, President Museveni appointed Ms Alice Kaboyo to a Ministerial position. Ms Kaboyo had, in 2012 been convicted on her own plea of guilty to charges of abuse of office after she got involved in the misuse of funds from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
Ms Kaboyo who was by then an aide in the State House was charged alongside three other former health ministers, Jim Muhwezi and his deputies Mike Mukula and Dr Alex Kamugisa. Muhwezi and Kamugisa were acquitted and discharged after being accused of mismanaging Shs 1.6billion.
Ms Kaboyo was sentenced to a fine of Shs 20 million or be jailed for eight years but decided to pay the fine. Mr Mukula was also found guilty of embezzling Shs 210 million.
Ms Cissy Kagaba, the Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU) considers Ms Kaboyo’s approval of the appointment as a mockery of the country’s fight against corruption.
She further says the reappointment of Ms Kaboyo by the same committee that had earlier rejected her on moral and integrity grounds puts the Parliamentary Committee in a questionable outlook with a possibility that it is weak and cannot stand by its decisions.
Ms Ali Munira, the Inspector General of Government (IGG) spokesperson, however, thinks Ms Kaboyo had served her punishment and also paid the fine.

“There was nothing prohibiting her appointment as a leader,” she said.
However, Ms Kagaba insists that appointing officers who were once convicted indicates reluctance in the fight against corruption and IFFs because there are many other competent people who can serve in the same positions.
Our efforts to reach Ms Kaboyo were been futile as she could not pick our repeated phonecalls to her known numbers known to be hers. 
 According to the 2018 African Union (AU) high-level report on illicit financial flows, corruption is described as a cross-cutting issue that drives and fuels IFFs at every stage. This corruption includes payments made and job opportunities offered to customs officers, judges, police and other civil servants.
Corruption also extends to the use of political influence to stop officials from doing their jobs, such as forbidding the vetting of mineral exports, or searching planes or ‘cutting off political deals to frustrate prosecution of crimes relating to IFFs.’
The report also states that while the proceeds of corruption, such as bribes and embezzlement of state funds are thought to constitute just 5% of illicit outflows, it has been argued that the proportion of total IFFs stemming from corruption may be higher in developing countries with less sophisticated organized crime and smaller financial centre. It can also be argued that a failure to limit corruption first, will make the stemming of IFFs an impossible task.
Ms Munira confirms that corruption has a big effect on IFFs but says the role of the IGG is to conduct investigations and prosecutions.
“We confirm corruption to have a big effect on IFFs. However, once we have prosecuted successfully, and we get a conviction and the convict serves the sentence we have done our part”, she said.

 A 2020 report of the Auditor General shows that a total of 25 government entities made procurements worth Shs 143.84 billion received as spent on the Covid-19 response without following the paper procurement guidelines issued. It also states that out of Shs 1.8 trillion spent by the government on undisclosed activities, only Shs 615.8 Billion was approved by Parliament.

Ms Munira further explains to Daily Monitor that “the IGG has, however set up an Asset Recovery Unit to help trace illicitly obtained wealth at the national and international level. In addition, at the regional level IGG is a member of the Asset Recovery Interagency Network for Eastern Africa, a network of the Eastern Africa Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities, whose main objective is to trace and recover assets regionally and intentionally as well as illicit financial flows. Some investigations under this arrangement are underway”, she added.

 According to a 2014 (OECD) report titled Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries, states that have high levels of corruption combined with weak institutions are drivers of illicit flows and these are often symptoms of deeper governance failures. Ultimately, the fight to control illicit outflows from the developing world must focus on building responsive, effective institutions that deliver services to their population.

This in turn should encourage citizens and companies to engage in legal activities, report their earnings and pay their taxes and dues in accordance with national laws.
Still, a 2010 World Bank report ranks Uganda among the corrupt states estimating that the nation loses about USD 300m annually through corruption and procurement malpractices.
Another 2017 Sautizawanachi report by Twaweza, a non-government Organization says that 79 percent of Ugandans feel the government is not doing a good job in fighting corruption while 78 percent say the country is badly off in creating jobs.
While swearing in a section of ministers at Kololo Independence grounds in May this year, President Museveni tasked the new cabinet with five targets to focus on in the next five years. These included fighting corruption, service delivery, cohesion, integration and patriotism.

Ms Kagaba, however, says people who engage in tax evasion, money laundering and opening up accounts in other countries like Switzerland are not ordinary Ugandans but instead government officials who are highly connected.

 This story was produced by Daily Monitor and was written as part of Wealth of Nations, a media skills development programme run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The content is the sole responsibility of the author and the publisher.