The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Inspector General of Government (IGG), Beti Kamya has appealed to the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee to avail her institution with more funding that will partly improve the slow progress in handling corruption cases.
Kamya was on Monday appearing before the committee to present the body’s policy statement for the next financial year 2022/2023.
She told MPs that the Inspectorate of Government (IG) spends 80 percent of its annual budget on running the institution and hence fails to carry out its main mandate. She said that the 80 percent expenditure involves payment of salaries, utility bills and general running of the institution.
According to the budget estimates, government has allocated 67.7 billion budget to the Inspectorate of Government. Out of this, 52.5 billion is recurrent expenditure while 15.2 billion is development expenditure.
Kamya says that the institution needs enough funding to investigate and prosecute corruption culprits, noting that the country loses trillions in mismanagement of procurement processes by government entities, deliberate embezzlement of funds intended for service delivery, under declaration of taxes and others.
She noted that they need more funding totaling 24.8 billion Shillings to enable the IG recruit more staff, staff training, purchase of new vehicles and others.
The Inspectorate’s recruitment plan for the coming financial year indicates a requirement of 1.7 billion Shillings to fill 39 positions. These include 30 inspectorate officers, 2 personal secretaries, 5 drivers, 2 records assistants and others.
Meanwhile, during the interface with the MPs, they asked the IGG to explain how the Inspectorate intends to carry out the lifestyle audit without infringing on people’s right to privacy and witch-hunting. In response, Kamya said that leaders holding public office are mandated to declare assets according to the Leadership Code Act.
Deputy IGG, Anne Muhairwe said that they are aware of public officials who live like poppers during the day and kings at night. She emphasized that they will be able to close all these loopholes that are used by public officers to embezzle funds.
Abdu Katuntu, the Bugweri County MP said that he is a fan of the lifestyle audit but the IG needs a legal framework to carry it out.
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