Uprooting corruption in local governments

A collective responsibility to reclaim integrity and public trust in job 

COMMENT | MALE SOLOMON GRACE  | The fight against corruption and the sale of jobs in local governments dominated discussions at the 16th annual general meeting for the Association of Local Government Service Commissions of Uganda (ALGSCU), held on July 24 and 25, 2024, at Lugogo UMA Hall in Kampala.

The Association of Local Government Service Commissions of Uganda serves as a representative body for all district and city service commissions in Uganda, with a full mandate to manage human resources in local government. The association zonal coordinators in the 16 sub-regions around Uganda are charged with the obligation to advocate for and coordinate performance standards in districts and cities.

This year’s annual meeting comes at a critical time when the public has moved to make reports in the media about their dissatisfaction with the misappropriation of public funds and misuse of offices by some public and civil servants. The matter has upset President Yoweri Museveni who warned public servants against being corrupt and called on the anti-corruption government agencies to intensify efforts to eradicate corruption.

A number of officers have been apprehended, meaning that there is a need for chairpersons, members, and secretaries of the commissions at the local government level to also carry out an introspection of their performances as individuals because not at any one moment have government jobs and services been declared or announced for sale.

However, the highlights of the key challenges the DSC and CSCs face include, but are not limited to: renumeration, presentation of forged academic documents by applicants, understaffing, intertwined with delayed issuance of appointment letters to successful applicants, and not declaring vacant positions by some accounting officers due to individual interests.

The other most pressing matter of concern is that commissions are too corrupt, which has reduced public trust. The general allegation is that during the recruitment process, many people get involved in the extortion of money, claiming to be working for the commission to help job seekers secure appointments with ease.

According to the Cost of Corruption in Uganda Report (2021) by the Inspectorate of Government, only a very small percentage of corruption gets detected, and it should be noted that with the combined effort of all the laws and institutions in place, the war against corruption has mainly centred on whistleblowers, tracking suspects, investigating, prosecution, conviction, incarceration, and recovery of the loot; therefore, there is a need to rebrand the war from being an Executive, Parliament, Judiciary, IG, NGOs, and anti-corruption agencies’ war to a citizens’ war.

It is worth noting that when corruption is pervasive, it manifests across the whole spectrum of public action and state-society interactions, with far-reaching impacts. The eradication of corruption in Uganda could result in substantial savings amounting to approximately Shs9.1 trillion per year, or 7.3% of GDP or 23% of annual government spending. The savings hold the potential to significantly improve the provision of public services to citizens.

In my view, the Ministry of Public Service needs to set a reasonable remuneration level for members of DSCs and CSCs to be taken into consideration by the national planners and should be commensurate with the standards of living. We must also ensure that district and city service commissions are fully constituted with all the technical staff as required and block any leakage to make the recruitment process seamless.

Accounting officers should promptly declare vacant positions. The DSCs and CSCs should carry out due diligence before recruitment by verifying the applicants’ academic documents with the help of the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE) and other awarding institutions.

I am also convinced by the Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Winnie Agnes Kabogoza Musoke of the key advantages of rolling out the e-recruitment system, which will minimise human interaction, which often leads to biases and inefficiencies in the recruitment process since there will be ease with access to applicants’ data whenever there is a need, ensuring that the process remains transparent and efficient.

With the last-mile connectivity agenda spearheaded by Uganda’s National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) and the launch of the Digital Transformation Roadmap (FY2023/24-2027/28), the actualisation of the aspirations of the Digital Uganda Vision will be evidenced. This is intended to facilitate the digitalization of systems; this will eliminate human interaction and compromise in the recruitment processes to begin with at the local government level and the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

In conclusion, the government, in partnership with civil society, the private sector, development partners, policymakers, universities, and tertiary institutions, needs to set clear targets, formulate, and implement strategies in unison to build a national culture to address maladministration caused by corruption.

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The author is a communications officer at the Government Citizen Interaction Centre (GCIC) at State House Uganda.