Just a few months ago, Ugandans had one big cause to
celebrate. It was the 50 years Golden Jubilee celebration, of our independence
from the colonialists. One wonders why we celebrated. Though we had joined
those African countries that had celebrated theirs years before, the likes of
Nigeria and was quite lucky, it was the first in the East African Community.
Little did they know the good news was to quickly be
supplanted by a more ominous story. The Uganda media houses have been vividly
following last month’s revelation that the Ireland government had suspended aid
to the Ugandan government after an audit showed that over Euros 11M, had ended
up in the unauthorized personal accounts of the Office of the Prime Minister
officials. Just in a wake of this suspension, many countries have joined in
suspending their aid to the government of Uganda, these are; Denmark, Sweden,
Norway, Germany, and the UK government. Of course the UK government chose to
cur aid totally, and even withholds the intended Pounds 41M meant to be
received in March next year to support the budget. This was a tight moment for the UK government
amidst the tight home budget and foreign aid spending being complained about in
the legislature. This was officially published in one of the local daily’s
Sunday Vision, bearing its headlines for the day, on November 19th,
2012. When the official s of the Finance Ministry were contacted by this local
daily they claimed they did not have any documentation as to that effect and
were only aware of it by the awash publication in the media, this leaves a lot
to be desired. However before we could
even think of what to believe, it all came up again in news with the prime
Minister apologising to the Donors to restore their aid as the intended
“beneficiaries” would suffer.
Let’s get to the roots of this matter, the money stolen was
meant for Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) in Uganda. And for that
purpose the focal point was the war torn Northern and Easter Uganda that had
faced the rage of the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels insurgency. This
programme covers 40 Districts in all, and was meant to restore the livelihood
of these people, but one wonders whether after stealing $38M, any recovery will
be justified in this region. This is not
the first of its kind, earlier on in 2011, the aid money worth $50M was
diverted to buy a Gulf Stream jet for the President of Uganda.
In one of local Daily’s the Daily Monitor, it was reported
that Billions of shillings meant to help Ugandans affected by the over two
decades of war rebuild their lives ended up building mansions in Kampala and
buying luxury vehicles. As parents in
war ravaged Northern tied their Children affected by nodding disease to trees,
corrupt technocrats in the ministry were flying off to exotic holiday
destinations. Such was the sense of those involved in the scam that a cashier
whose monthly salary is less than 1.5 Million Uganda Shillings ($580) regularly
“lent” the government hundreds of Millions of shillings, which were paid back
to his personal bank account. “Funds advanced to the cashier’s account were
described as a refund of borrowed cash, making it appear, as if the cashier
lent government money from his personal savings” the Audit report noted.
The of ice of the Prime Minister has since suspended 17
officials from its office some being interdicted by Parliament, and some from the Finance Ministry and Bank
of Uganda. This was the kind of foil that left Treasury Chief Accountant Chris
Kassami in shock, when questioned by Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC).
The Prime Minister, Amama Mbabazi
declined to take responsibility for the embezzlement and instead met with
donors in the capital Kampala to apologise and reassure them a further
investigation will be conducted. The Investigations have also had the hands of
the First lady Janet Kataha Museveni who also doubles as the Minister for
Karamoja affairs under the Office of the Prime Minister, implicated of having
spent over Ugandan Shillings 143Millions in 8 frequent trips to Israel in one
month, spending what was meant for her ministry. The Prime Minster has been
implicated in various corruption scandals in the country and has been
vindicated by the President each time. As though to add salt to injury, the Permanent
Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Pius Bigirimana has been
interdicted by parliament but the Prime Minister and President have chosen to
vindicate him in this scam.
The Ugandan Political magazine, The Independent, reported on
what the president is doing to fight corruption. However many Ugandans think he
is not fully committed to the fight. The President himself at one point said he
was tired of corrupt officials in his government. The media publications and social media
activity on embezzlement scandals in the Office of the Prime Minister,
definitely captures the frustration the ordinary citizen faces.
It should therefore be noted that the implications of the
scandals go beyond the tarnished reputation of the Office of the Prime
Minister. It will take us enough time to gain the confidence of would be donors
and foreign investors after hearing such dismal acts. This is just to show how
damaged the country as a whole has suffered, and not only the immediately
affected, by the acts of the corrupt officials. I therefore call upon each and
every Ugandan youth to rise up and let’s join in the war against corruption in
Uganda, the future belongs to us.
Ronald Ochoo,
F: Ronnie Ross Onyang O
T: @Ronnie_Ross_O
Skype: ronnieross256
Commonwealth Youth Programme,
Correspondent from Uganda.
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