A statement by Ethics and Integrity Minister, Mrs. Rose Lilly Akello has highlighted the plight of anti-graft agencies, which are struggling to force corrupt officials to drop their loot.

From the office of the Inspectorate of Government (IG), whereas Shs18.2 billion was identified as proceeds of crime to be returned to public coffers, the Minister told Parliament that only Shs7 billion has been recovered.

The Auditor General is no different.

“The Office of the Auditor General carried out 6,268 financial compliance audits, 23 value for money audits, 101 specialised engineering audits, 85 forensics special audits and nine IT audits over the last three financial years,” she said.

Of these, Shs175 billion is due to be returned to the taxpayer, but so far Shs4 billion in cash and assets has been recovered from the corrupt.

For the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), after prosecuting a record 261 graft cases and getting 110 convictions, only Shs10 billion, USS$16,000 and malaria drugs valued at Shs28 million was salvaged.

The Criminal Investigations Directorate scoured through 318 cases, presenting 56 files to the DPP, and 23 files were fit for prosecution.

This effort only managed to bring Shs615 million back to the taxpayer.

During the Covid-19 pandemic relief bonanza that saw officials help themselves to painfully sourced public funds, Shs41.6 billion was recovered from officials, with billions sinking unsalvaged.

“The State House Anti-Corruption Unit recovered a total amount of Shs41.6 billion, of which Shs9.6 billion was from inflated Covid-19 relief food prices; Shs4.5 billion from local governments; Shs3.6 billion from inflated compensation of Bukasa Inland port affected persons and Shs2.9 billion worth of drugs which had been stolen from Joint Medical Stores was recovered,” she said.

The Financial Intelligence Authority, on the other hand reported Shs6.4 billion in corruption still in the hands of thieving officials awaiting prosecution, with recovery hoped to see that money returned to public coffers.

At the Leadership Code Tribunal, corrupt officials opted to use alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, where they offered to return Shs10.9 billion, out of which only Shs5.9 billion has hit government’s escrow account at Bank of Uganda.

The Minister’s statement was in readiness for the celebrations of the Anti-Corruption day on Friday, 09 December 2022.
This year’s theme is: “Citizens must own the war to eliminate corruption. It is their war.”

Official celebrations will happen in Ibanda.

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Members of Parliament (MPs) attached to the Defense and Internal Affairs Committee have begun a five-day visit to Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces (UPDF) troops in Somalia in fulfillment of their constitution mandate.

This visit is aimed at assessing the performance of the troops in the mission area and the challenges therein.

The Minister of State for Defense in charge of Veterans Affairs, Oleru Gudu Abason who led the delegation while addressing UPDF soldiers in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, applauded the President and Commander In Chief (CIC) of the UPDF HE Gen Yoweri Museveni for advancing a Pan-Africanism plan aimed at attaining and maintaining peace across Africa.

She further thanked UPDF troops for their support, sacrifice, discipline, commitment and hard work, among others. “I want to take this opportunity to thank our CIC for his visionary idea to advance the Pan-Africanism plan and also applaud UPDF for your effort, discipline and sacrifice that has ensured the success of the CIC plan to bring peace not only in Uganda but across Africa,” Oleru noted.

She assured troops that their mission allowances will soon be paid.

Oleru added that salary enhancement for all UPDF soldiers is in the process.

The committee Chairperson and also Woman Member of Parliament, Rose Nyakikongoro acknowledged troops for their resilience and mentioned that the committee’s role is to look into issues of troops, apportion a budget for the Defence Ministry and ensure that the passed budget is put to good use.

The UPDF Contingent commander in Somalia Brig Gen Keith Katungi welcomed the MPs and assured them of safety.

“As UPDF, security is our business where we invest to harvest peace as profits,” Brig Gen Katungi remarked.

The MPs are also accompanied by the Defence Spokesperson Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye, Commanders, Officers and combatants.

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Members of Parliament have expressed dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development for failing to implement the House’s resolution to allow local governments to spend local revenue at source.

 On 08 September 2021, Parliament passed a resolution urging the government to reverse the directive requiring local governments to remit all local revenues to the Consolidated Fund.

This resolution was premised on the need to strengthen the decentralisation governance to effectively improve service delivery.

While updating the House on Tuesday, 06 December 2022, the State Minister of Finance (Planning), Amos Lugoloobi said they have been constrained to allow local governments to collect and spend the local revenues collected because of the legal provisions.

“In order to implement the Parliamentary resolution, Section 29 and, other sections of the Public Finance Management Act will have to be amended to specifically allow local governments not to remit local revenues,” Lugoloobi said adding that, ‘this decision will have far-reaching effects on existing Treasury Single Account, payment processing, and reporting systems.

However, Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa said there is currently no legal impediment barring the Minister of Finance from allowing local governments to spend revenue at source.

“Both the Constitution and PFMA have authorised local governments to collect and use money. It is government that is violating the law because there is no legal impediment,” Basalirwa said. 

Section 29 (3) (a) of the PFMA allows for revenues in the form of levies, licenses, fees and fines collected by a Vote to be retained if it is authorised through the appropriation of Parliament.

MPs urged the Minister of Finance to table an amendment intended to realign the PFMA and Local Government Act to have a seamless process of allowing local governments to spend their revenue.

“The role of decentralisation is to empower local units to live to their aspiration, but we are seeing potholes on the roads and their hands are tired because money is in the Consolidated Fund. We need to sit and amend this law to strike a balance to improve service delivery,” Muhammed Nsereko (Kampala Central MP) said. 

The State Minister of Finance (General Duties), Henry Musasizi said that whereas the idea of having all government revenues put together under a single treasury account is not disputed, there is need to improve the timely accessibility of these funds by local governments through supplementary budgets.

He committed to ensuring that the supplementary budgets are cleared on time to allow local governments to expend the funds according to their budgets.

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The National Council of Sports (NCS), a government body mandated to develop, promote and control sports in Uganda has come under the spotlight for allegedly registering briefcase sports federations.

Currently, 51 sports federations have been registered by NCS and are entitled to government funding to facilitate the implementation of their activities.

The Minister of State for Education and Sports (Sports), Peter Ogwang noted that there is need to re-examine the federations as he suspects some of them only exist on paper and do not account for government funds.

Ogwang said this on Tuesday, 06 December 2022 while leading NCS officials before the Select Committee that was recently constituted by the Speaker to investigate activities of the sports council.

Ogwang added that he has embarked on a field tour to visit all the 51 sports federations to ascertain their status, performance and wipe out suspected briefcase federations.
 
“We have a role to play in the management of the sports federations. That is why we have the National Council of Sports and I will not leave any stone unturned in ensuring we have legitimate federations. . Any Federation that doesn’t account for government funds will not get any more funds,” Ogwang said.

While sharing his experience during his recent visit to some of these sports federations, Ogwang said some of the CEOs do not even meet the basic requirements for running and managing sports federations.  
 
Members of the select committee chaired by Laura Kanushu, tasked the minister to explain how they were able to register briefcase federations and fund them.

“I thought NCS had criteria with minimum requirements for a federation to be registered and considered for funding. That is your weakness as a council. Do you take the trouble to visit them? It is your duty as a council to serve this government so that you don’t waste resources,” Namayingo District MP Margaret Makokha said.
 
Kanushu demanded that NCS provides a detailed report on the federations’ registration process, reporting, and accountability.  

“We need to know what qualifies a federation to get government money. But also how do you release money without getting full accountability for monies released in the previous financial year or quarter?” Kanushu asked.

According to Dr. Patrick Ogwel, the General Secretary, NCS, they spent Shs4.8 billion to facilitate activities of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Shs1 billion for the Fifth Islamic Solidarity games in Turkey and Shs400 million for the 2022 Rugby Sevens World Cup in South Africa among others.

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President Yoweri Museveni has committed support to Morocco on behalf of Uganda to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

Museveni said during King Mohammed VI of Morocco’s visit to the country and held talks at State House over the matter.

“Received a message from His Highness, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, seeking support in their bid to host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations,” Museveni said.

Museveni stated that he will support Morocco provided their bid does not collide with interests of East African states.

“Being the first country to approach us, I will support them on condition that it doesn’t collide with the interests of the East African states,” the President added.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) re-opened bidding for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations after stripping Guinea of the right to host the competition.

Caf president Patrice Motsepe said that the 24-team tournament will be removed because of a lack of suitably advancing infrastructure and facilities.

Uganda and Tanzania will reportedly bid to co-host the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 2027.

The minimum requirement for hosting Afcon according to CAF is that the host country should have six stadiums to cater to the 24 teams that take part in the tournament. In addition, the federation notes that there should be two 40,000 capacity stadiums, two 20,000-seater stadiums, and two with a capacity of 15,000.

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