The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda on Monday marked the African Anti-Corruption Day that is commemorated annually on July 11.
The Inspectorate of Government, a government agency charged with fighting the vice said in a statement issued that there is progress made in fighting the evil although more effort is still needed.
This year, the commemoration was held under the theme, “Escalating the war on corruption in Africa: Focus on COVID-19 Funds”.
The statement said the Inspectorate has received and handled more than 41 COVID-19 related cases, some of which have ended in convictions, recoveries, arrests and others are ongoing.
The agency said, according to a report by the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, 8.65 billion shillings (2.4 million U.S. dollars) was saved from the inflated COVID-19 government relief food prices by the Office of Prime Minister in 2020. The office was charged with giving out relief food to the vulnerable people hit by the impact of COVID-19.
The statement said, according to the Auditor General, there was suspected financial indiscipline in the utilization of 311 billion shillings (86.4 million dollars) disbursed to government departments and agencies for COVID-19 interventions.
Besides the fight against COVID-19 related corruption cases, the country on the whole is grappling with the fight against the vice, according to the statement.
Government, according to the inspectorate, is placing emphasis on the development and reform of legal, institutional and regulatory environment to improve the quality of accountability and combating corruption.
Government figures in 2021 showed that the estimated cost of corruption in Uganda is 9.1 trillion shillings per year (2.5 billion dollars), which is equivalent to 44 percent of government revenue in 2019.
The African Anti-Corruption Day was designated by the African Union to highlight the continued need to fight corruption.
According to Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perception Index, Africa, the lowest scoring region got an average of 33/100 compared to Europe the highest scoring region with 66/100.
According to the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa report published in 2021, Africa is estimated to be losing more than 50 billion dollars annually to illicit financial outflows.
*****
Xinhua
