Persistent corruption in government entities, political interference, and low staff motivation are some of the imminent challenges that await the newly appointed Inspector General of Government (IGG), Aisha Naluzze Batala.
In a country that loses close to Shs10 trillion annually to corruption schemes, Justice Naluzze has her work cut out, and in this publication, we highlight some of the hurdles, many of which her predecessors faced too:
Political interference
A few weeks to the end of the four-year tenure of the outgoing IGG, Beti Olive Namisango Kamya, President Museveni wrote a missive, questioning her directive to interdict the Commissioner of Land Registration Baker Mugaino.
Mr Museveni reasoned that since Mr Mugaino was a presidential appointee, he ought to have been informed about the ombudsman’s move to interdict him.
President Museveni, in his May 24 strongly worded letter to Lands Minister Judith Nabakooba, wondered why Mr Mugaino, whom he had sent to her ministry on a special mission, was instead interdicted on the orders of Ms Kamya without his involvement as the appointing authority.
‘.I have now been informed that the Commissioner of Land Registration, who is implementing this solution, has been removed from office on unspecified grounds, apparently acting on the directives of the IGG,’ Museveni wrote in his letter to the minister. He continued: ‘How convenient! Do you have the authority to interdict such an officer (a presidential appointee) without my involvement? Why was I not consulted prior to this action being taken?.’
According to his letter, the President had sent Mr Mugaino to the Lands ministry to find a solution to the persistent inefficiencies, fraud, and mismanagement, particularly in the Land Information System, which he claimed had cost the government over $140 million, yet double tilting, tax evasion, and fraudulent transactions still went on.
The President had sent Mr Mugaino to start the digitalisation process aimed at mitigating the said persistent shortcomings, but he was in the process arrested and interdicted on directives of the IGG.
But President Museveni’s directive was branded by some of the legal minds as ‘overstepping his mandate, impunity, and undermining government institutions on execution of their mandate’.
‘The Constitution demands that the IGG’s work is not interfered with; that is why she is called an ombudsman whose core role is to look into and check the government agencies,’ Mr Caleb Alaka, a senior lawyer, said, adding: ‘If I were the IGG, I would have resigned by now.’
In 2018, Justice Irene Mulyagonja, while IGG, claimed the majority of the powerful corrupt government officials were ‘hiding’ behind the back of the President and using their connection to the country’s chief executive officer to defeat justice. Justice Mulyagonja, who is now a judge of the Court of Appeal, went on to reveal that the corrupt are very powerful and that whenever she attempts to go after them, they fight back and, in most cases, they win the battle.
The President had used the State-of- the-Nation Address of that year to question the effectiveness of the IGG’s office in fighting corruption and said he was to create a new institution under his office to reinforce the fight against corruption in the country. Former Ethics minister Miria Matembe, earlier this week, said corruption in this country can’t be won without the political will.
Demotivated staff
Sources within the Inspectorate of Government said the staff are demotivated due to poor pay in comparison to their peers who work for other government institutions like the office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), and Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA), among others. ‘.As a result, staff get demoralised and pursue greener pastures elsewhere,’ our sources who are privy to what is happening at IGG’s office said.
They added: ‘The current staff structure doesn’t give room for growth in terms of promotion. For instance, there are staff who have been at the officer level for 10 years, and these have never been promoted.’
Prosecuting the corrupt
The new IGG has her work further cut out as the public expects her to prosecute corruption cases, most especially the big cases involving high profile government officials.
Constitutionally, the IGG is the leading fighter against corruption, but this hasn’t been the case; statistics show that the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has prosecuted twice as many corruption cases as the IGG.
In her four-year term, outgoing IGG Kamya faced two big corruption scandals involving the Karamoja iron sheets and the Parliament exhibition, but never took steps to prosecute any of the accused.
Mr Marlon Agaba, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, said Ms Kamya’s failures supersede her achievements, especially her failure to prosecute a single high-profile corruption case in her term.
‘We saw a drastic decline in the prosecution of corruption cases, which was unfortunate because we saw a lot of exhibitions on corruption happening, the anti-corruption protests, the Mabaati scandal, but not even a single prosecution happened from the IG,’ he said.
‘Negotiating with thieves’
There was also a concern about the outgoing IGG, where in some scenarios, she negotiated with officials implicated in corruption and they refunded their loot and returned to office, with some being promoted. Examples of such negotiations included officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos).
‘The public wants to see the corrupt being prosecuted. During Kamya’s reign, we saw officials from the Agriculture ministry and Ubos who were involved in corruption scandals refund the stolen money, and they were left to return to their offices with some even being promoted,’ our source said. They added: ‘Since the new IGG is a seasoned prosecutor, let her come and do more of the prosecutions than recovering money.’
Break favouritism
The new ombudsman comes in at a time when there are cliques of officials working with their favourite employees and not on merit. ‘She needs to break the silos.people working with their favourite instead of focusing on teamwork. This kind of work arrangement, derails work,’ the source said.
IGG rating.
‘We saw a drastic decline in the prosecution of corruption cases [by former IGG], which was unfortunate because we saw a lot of exhibitions on corruption happening, the anti-corruption protests, the Mabaati scandal, but not even a single prosecution…’ Marlon Agaba, ED of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda.