North beats Kampala in corruption
The inspector general of government has described chronic absenteeism from Parliament by MPs as a quiet form of corruption.
In her 2014 Report on Tracking Corruption Trends in Uganda, IGG Irene Mulyagonja laments that despite rampant dereliction of duty, absentee MPs continue to receive their full salaries and entitlements. Launched at Hotel Africana recently, the report also points out that this form of “corruption” seems to be gaining acceptance as normal.
The report notes that sometimes Parliament has failed to pass crucial legislations due to lack of quorum. The full effect of the rampant absenteeism spilled into public view recently, when the Constitutional court nullified the Anti-Homosexuality Act because it was passed without quorum.
The report also quotes Gen Moses Ali, the deputy leader of government business in Parliament, who attacked MPs last December for dodging parliamentary sittings. Ali argued that MPs were engaging in a form of ‘quiet corruption.’
“A House of 300 MPs could not sit on Thursday for lack of quorum. When it comes to payment of salaries, all are paid, whether they attend or not. That is corruption, yet nobody talks about it. If you take taxpayers’ money when you do not attend, sign the register and go away, it is corruption,” Gen Ali said, according to the report.
The IGG does not directly suggest sanctions against absenteeism but indirectly recommends a fine. She notes that MPs absenteeism is not unique to Uganda. The exception is that in some countries there are sanctions, according to the IGG.
“Under the South African Parliament’s leave and attendance policy, MPs are fined about US$ 100 [approximately Shs 250,000=] for each day of unauthorized absence,” the report reads.
Costly graft
The report also found a worrying trend of grand, political and petty corruption in the country. If the trend is not unchecked, the report says, it could impede economic development in a number of ways, such as creating disincentives for investments, driving talent away from productive to rent-seeking activities and would deny citizens who are reliant on public services an opportunity to meet their basic needs.
“Reports from the Office of the Auditor General suggest that corruption is getting worse in Uganda with an increasing value of public funds misappropriated and with an increasingly high level of sophistication in the means by which public resources are pilfered,” the report says, decrying the failure to punish public officials accused of corruption or to implement audit recommendations.
Surprisingly, the report found that the prevalence of bribery is highest in northern Uganda and lowest in Kampala. This might sound ironic to people in the north. One of the worst corruption scandals in recent years saw money meant to aid northern Uganda stolen by government officials in Kampala.
The report also notes that the cost of political corruption and fraud is extremely high. For instance, the report attributes the many parliamentary by-elections to electoral fraud and noted that for every electoral fraud committed and results in a by-election, the taxpayer loses an average of Shs 300 million in each by-election. Since 2011 elections, the country has held 15 by-elections, 10 of them due to electoral fraud.