Uganda lost Shs30b to corruption in FY2023-24, says IGG

The Inspectorate of Government said Uganda lost at least Shs30 billion to the corrupt and registered about 2, 377 graft related complaints in the Financial Year 2023/24, the Ombudsman said on Monday.  

According to Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Kamya, 1,260 of the complaints were registered at the head office in Kampala while the rest were in their 16 regional offices.

“About 91.8 per cent of these were sanctioned for investigations, 2.7 per cent were referred to the authorities while 0.1 per cent were declined because they did not meet the merit in investigable cases,”she told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala.

“By the end of the financial year, decisions were yet to be taken on 5.4 per cent of complaints,” she added before announcing that the Inspectorate will commemorate its 38th anniversary in Kampala on September 18, 2024.

Kamya further revealed that Inspectorate last financial year investigated 852 corruption related cases of which 18 were of high-profile individuals.

“We also recommended the recovery of Shs17b to the consolidated fund from persons found culpable in various corruption offences but, the overall recovery of funds that the country had lost to corruption stood at Shs30b,” she noted.

According to her, at least 251 administrative sections were issued against public officials and 26 of these were to be prosecuted for their involvement in corruption tendencies.

“The Inspectorate prosecuted and concluded 55 cases in the courts of law. A total of 26 convictions were realized leading to a conviction rate of 47.3 percent. Of the 55 concluded cases, 9 were acquitted, 18 withdrawn for various reasons such as settling the matter out of court, while two were dismissed,” she observed.

She noted that from the withdrawn cases, implicated persons committed to refund Shs912m to the consolidated fund despite the fact that the IGG recovered at least Shs14 billion through court orders.

Still on Monday, Kamya told journalists that records from the FY2022/2023 indicated that 26,541 out of expected 32,617 public servants declared their wealth in accordance with the Leadership Code Act.

During the same period, the Inspectorate verified declarations of 574 public officials out of the targeted 600.

A total of 213 investigations into breaches of the Leadership Code Act were concluded, of which 190 were related to non-declarations while 23 were false declarations.

As a result of verifications and investigations, 61 public officials were recommended for prosecution at the Leadership Code Tribunal.

The IG also resolved 498 Ombudsman complaints comprising 77 in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (BDAs) and 421 in Local Governments, according to Kamya.

The complaints were majorly related to employment disputes, delayed service delivery, non-payment of salaries, and pensions and mismanagement   among others.

From the Ombudsman investigations, 892 citizens were able to directly access various services including access to payment totaling to Shs4 billion delayed salaries and pensions.

Kamya concluded rallying Ugandans to embrace the anniversary commemoration to denounce corruption.

She said that they should turn up in big numbers at the 38th anniversary celebrations and air out issues affecting them.

“Members of the public will interact with IG staff and also lodge complaints,” she said.

Uganda has been oscillating in the pack of the 36 worst-ranked and has on average been among the 24 most corrupt in the world over the past 12 years.