US join hands with Uganda to fight corruption in new initiative

 By Ben Musanje

5^th May 2022

Corruption has been ranked a major challenge affecting the development of Uganda especially practiced by the government officers in public offices which hinders proper service delivery to citizens.

The Director of Public Prosecution –DPP Jane Francis Abodo says that in the last 10 years, over 70trillion shillings was lost in terms of corruption but only 10trillion shillings have been recovered and the culprits have been penalized.

This was during the launching of the Anti- Corruption project in Kampala by the Anti- Corruption Coalition of Uganda –ACCU dubbed the USAID Systems Strengthening and Public Accountability Activity which is aimed at improving the Government of Uganda’s responsiveness to citizens, service delivery and stewardship of financial and natural resources.

Abodo says that they are now focusing on confiscating properties of those found guilty of corruption and they need the citizens to help the government in monitoring and reporting public officials engaged in the vise.

Anne Twinomugisha Muhairwe, the Deputy Inspector General of Government –D/IGG says they are involving the communities, media and all the stakeholders to ensure that corruption is reduced and accountability is increased.

The U.S Ambassador to Uganda Natalie Brown says that the United States is keen to work with Ugandans to see this new project make significant inroads in fighting corruption and promoting stronger transparency and accountability.

The recent study commissioned by the IGG on the cost of corruption shows that Uganda loses about 9.14 trillion shillings every year to corruption which is equivalent to 44 percent of total government revenue in 2019.