Kampala.
The Inspector General of Government, Ms Irene Mulyagonja, has named four major areas prone to corruption which will be the centre of focus for investigations in the next five years.
The IGG said contrary to what the media has been portraying that the ombudsman’s office only investigates small cases, high priority areas have been identified where high profile cases will be investigated.
The IGG named the identified areas as the Uganda National Roads Authority, Ministry of Health, Rural Electrification Agency and Ministry of Local Government.
“We realised that we have to combat the new type of corruption which is syndicate corruption and decided to put in place better methods of investigation and focus more on the big cases to have them investigated, sufficiently, efficiently and effectively, and improve on the prosecution of these big cases,” Ms Mulyagonja said on Friday.
She was speaking at the launch of the Inspectorate of Government Strategic Investment Plan 2015/2016 to 2019/2020 in Kampala. Ms Mulyagonja identified understaffing and underfunding as the key challenges frustrating the corruption investigations.
However, she did not mention the manpower her office needs to reach the targeted efficiency level.
“We want to find ways of investigating our cases better but the staff of the inspectorate are not that many. Right now we are just 400 and it is not all technical staff, and as it is, we have a huge volume of cases that have to be investigated,” Ms Mulyagonja said.
A report, which the commission of inquiry into Uganda National Roads Authority presented to President Museveni in May, indicated that Ugandan taxpayers lost at least Shs4 trillion through dubious contracts and outright fraud in collusion between UNRA and contractors in the last seven years.
The IGG strategic plan intends to improve efficiency and effectiveness in reducing corruption in the public sector for better utilisation of public resources to ensure better service delivery.
Ms Annet Twine, the director of Leadership Code which ensures adherence to principles and values of integrity at the inspectorate, said they have also set up a system for monitoring and evaluation of adherence to the strategic plan.
corruption index
The IGG report 2015, based on a survey of 2,400 respondents, put police at 63 per cent on the corruption index, followed by tax officials and government officials at 48 per cent each.
Judges and magistrates followed at 45 per cent, public sector at 44 per cent and business executives at 40 per cent.
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