NGO tells government to up game on accountability

Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC), a local non-governmental organization based in Kampala has urged government to further engage the public on vital information on matters of service delivery.

While releasing results conducted under the project ‘Financing for development’ at Golf Course Hotel on April 05, Charity Komujjurizi, the program officer said that in the 15 districts of Uganda where they moved between December 2017 and February 2018, they found out that majority of the respondents did not know what was going on matters spending on service delivery.

“This hinders effective implementation of government programmes,” Komujjuni, who represented the Executive Director of AFIC, said.

For instance, she said contracts relating to supply of agriculture inputs, roads and other projects were not known to the people.

According to highlights in the report, this scenario is partly caused by government’s move to reduce budgets for accountability bodies. For instance, according to the report, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) had a budget cut of about Shs 10bn in FY2013/14 and 2016/17 while that of the Inspector General of Government (IGG) currently has a funding gap of Shs 54bn.

As a result, AFIC wrote recommendations in the report urging government to; increase funding to the OAG, IGG and other accountability bodies; embrace more meaningful partnerships and engagement with CSOs; prioritise implementation of the recommendations of the IGG, OAG and Public Accounts Committee of Parliament and support synergy and networking, and further push for effective implementation of the access to information Act, 2005.

Reagan Okumu, the chairperson of Local Government Accounts Committee in Parliament and Member of Parliament for Aswa County said there is need for political will to fight corruption and abuse of office in relation to service delivery.

“There are cases that the IGG cannot touch,” Okumu said, “The IGG, Parliament, the Attorney General and other bodies should have commitment to do their work,” he added added.