Inspector General of Government Irene Mulyagonja says the body is now going after crocodiles, writes ALI TWAHA.
Four ministries tainted by corruption scandals came into sharp focus during a meeting last week of all employees of the Inspectorate of Government. IGG Irene Mulyagonja said the ministries will be investigated extensively in the next five years and the corrupt prosecuted.
IGG singled out the ministry of Health, ministry of Local Government, the roads sector and procurement unit at the Public Procurement Disposal of Public Assets Authority, as the most corrupt among government departments.
According to a recently released audit report from the Office of the Auditor General, some of the ministries singled out failed to account for billions of shilling allocated in the previous financial year. Justice Mulyagonja, described the inspectorate’s 2015/16-2019/20 strategic plan as kisanja hakuna mukyezo [term for no games] for corrupt civil servants.
“Society has been complaining that the inspectorate targets only small fish and leaves the big fish and the crocodiles swimming,” she said drawing thunderous cheers from staff members. “So, we want to put in place better methods of investigations and have these cases investigated sufficiently and efficiently,” she added.
The ombudsman said that to combat the “new type of syndicate corruption” new investigative ways have been devised.
Mulyagonja pointed out the introduction of the online declaration of wealth that will track how high-profile individuals accumulate wealth while serving in public offices. Other strategies include; increasing the number of technical staff to handle big cases, doing quarterly reviews in regard to performance, among others.
“We are going to launch the system on August 16 at the National Information Technology Agency,” she said.
50 MPS TO START
Under the online declaration of assets and liabilities, members of parliament and other civil servants will be required to declare their wealth online, which will be accessible to the public. In June 2011, government initiated the Access To Information Act (ATIA), which was passed by Parliament. The law grants every citizen the right to access information in the possession of the state or any other state agency as long as that information doesn’t breach state sovereignty or interfere with privacy rights.
Civil Society Organizations have for long argued that the law is applied selectively by the IGG to fry only the small fish. For instance, the only time the Leadership Code Act has put a member of parliament under scrutiny was when the IGG ejected Ken Lukyamuzi, the former Lubaga South MP out of the seventh parliament for failing to declare his assets.
Once every two years, legislators and civil servants are required under the Leadership Code Act, to declare their assets and wealth.
ONLINE SYSTEM
Under the online declaration of wealth system, civil servants shall receive a unique code via their mobile phones and then they will use the digits to access the declaration forms from the web portal. This information shall be accessible to the public for scrutiny.
“We are starting off with 50 members of parliament. We shall teach them how to use the system. The system has been tested and we used it in March,” Mulyagonja said. The shortlisted MPs to pioneer this system are mostly the new ones.
The Auditor General John Muwanga said: “There is space for them [IGG] to work together with the PPDA and the auditor general’s office. This combined effort will produce very positive results.”