Avoid duplication of govt services

On Tuesday this week, a new report released by the Uganda Law Society (ULS) called for the disbandment of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit.

The report dubbed “Rule of Law Report 2021, 4th Quarter”, recommended that instead of having created the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, government should have strengthened the already existing office of the Inspectorate of Government (IGG).

The Unit was initially headed by Lt Col Edith Nakalema until the appointment of Brig Henry Isoke this week to take over the role.

The lawyers argued that the IGG is the recognised and leading government agency that is constitutionally mandated to fight against corruption in the country.

The call by the lawyers to disband the Unit is sensible.

This is because, by government creating a parallel anti-graft unit, the same would translate into duplication of work by the different agencies, meaning wastage of taxpayers’ money.

There will always be unhealthy rivalry between/among these institutions, because each wants to earn favour from the appointing authority.

At some point, we witnessed unhealthy rivalry between the heads of the office of the IGG and the State House Unit, all intended to earn favour from President Museveni.

Right from the very start, the core mandate of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit was to collect queries from the public regarding corruption.

The same corruption queries would then be processed by the unit and forwarded to either the IGG’s office or Director of Public Prosecution to commence prosecution if at all there was sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution.

The arrangement was so because the State House Unit is not clothed with a constitutional mandate to cause prosecution of corruption cases. It’s the IGG or the DPP offices that are.

So to avoid such duplication of work and wastage of taxpayers’ money, why can’t we have the constitutionally recognised government agencies that are mandated to fight corruption, empowered to produce results in a peaceful work environment?

The funds pumped into the State House Unit should instead be channeled to the constitutionally mandated government bodies to carry out their work.

It’s only then that we shall have the audacity to demand for results if they don’t deliver on their man.

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