Turn all efforts to fighting corruption

Now that Independence Day has come and gone for the 62nd time, we carry a hefty bundle of reflections into yet another year of self-rule. As we move forward, it is no secret that one of the heaviest burdens the country must contend with is the crippling level of corruption.

Uganda, which is ranked in the bottom fifth on the global corruption index, loses an astronomical Shs9.1 trillion (the equivalent of 23 percent of the national budget) to corruption annually. 

While the gross figure is extremely damaging to our economy, it is only when one digs into the meat of the Inspector General of Government’s report on the Cost of Corruption (2021) that one gets a real sense of just what is at stake and how everyone is impacted by this graft. 

READ: Museveni to use intelligence systems to fight corruption

For example, it is reported that nearly Shs2.3 trillion is lost annually due to absenteeism in the healthcare and education sectors. This is computed by adding up all the hours that schoolteachers and health workers are absent from their posts. 

One out of two health workers are said to be absent from their stations every day in Uganda. With the already stretched numbers of doctor to patient and nurse to patient ratios (1:25,000 and 1:11,000 respectively) in the country, one can only imagine the harm done.

Between Shs5.4 trillion and 16 trillion is lost to environmental degradation. We are over exploiting environmental resources, adversely affecting biodiversity and piling up future costs on the public budget. 

Valuable public resources will have to be deployed to mitigate the effects of degradation or to carry out environmental restoration or cater for the people whose livelihoods will be lost owing to this reckless management of the environment.

This is to say nothing of the corruption in employment where applicants for public jobs must pay bribes in millions or the more than half a trillion lost in messy procurement that is flawed from start to finish, ensuring that neither the rightful contractors get the awards nor are the projects implemented to expectation. 

Delayed public projects such as hydroelectric power plants cost the taxpayer significantly.

There isn’t a sector of public or private that is left untouched by corruption, from security to taxation, inefficiencies in public utilities’ management or the collection of government revenues. 

If there is a single effort that deserves all our attention, it is ridding the nation of this cancer that is consuming the nation.