{UAH} Corruption in Uganda did not start with the NRM regime - Commentary - monitor.co.ug
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Corruption in Uganda did not start with the NRM regime - Commentary
By Prof George W. Kanyeihamba
Posted Sunday, September 21 2014 at 01:00
In Summary
Shortly before I was appointed Minister of Commerce in 1986, I met a senior civil servant. I asked her about how she could make ends meet with the little remuneration she earned.
Corruption did not start with the NRM Administration even though lately the NRM leaders have tended to accept and glorify it as a legitimate instrument of governance. If it had, Uganda under the UPC would not have enacted the Anti-Corruption Act of 1970 which, in many respects, is similar or better than the NRM party current Anti-Corruption Act of 2009.
Shortly before I was appointed Minister of Commerce in 1986, I met a senior civil servant. I asked her about how she could make ends meet with the little remuneration she earned.
She said: "We have mastered the tricks of survival. For instance, I am the accountant officer in this department and in charge of construction contracts. We advertise for tenders for construction bidders. Many of them know that it takes more than the actual cost of constructing a given building to win the tender.
I therefore negotiate with all bidders in the knowledge that the successful bidder will be the one who offers me the highest and not the lowest bonus over and above what will be the actual cost of the building."
She continued: "Currently, I have just signed a contract for building a government youth hostel. The contractual figure for which we have signed is Shs750 million. The winning bidder and I secretly know that after Government has paid this company that amount.
Shs50 million is to be privately returned to me as my commission. That is why accounting officers in Government are not beggars."
I posed the moral question, "Is that not stealing from taxpayers of this country?" Her response was philosophical.
"Ministers and Permanent Secretaries are corruptly pocketing billions of shillings and amassing great wealth and you have the courage to attack small fish?" She then justified her belief by a question from the Holy Books. "You first remove the huge beams from the eyes of the big men and women in the leaderships of this country. Thereafter, it will be much easier to remove small specks from ours".
Sadly, it is ironic today that our leaders appear to be busy complaining about tiny specks in the eyes of our small public officials while wallowing in the ill-gotten beams of wealth applauding and rewarding their colleagues, families and friends for the acquisition and retention of wealth unlawfully.
In the Uganda of today, the saying that "man eateth where he worketh" has become the rule rather than the exception of survival and good living.
Public officials who do not indulge in these wrongs or whose integrity forbids them to do them are despised and shunned in the modern politics of Uganda. It is those who indulge in corrupt tendencies, ignore or violate the law who are welcomed, appointed and applauded establishment of this country.
Political support and votes are freely given, not to the good and principled, but to candidates who are corrupt or through corruption are wealthier members of society. It does not take a genius to know that in the Uganda of today, both the ruling party and many members of Opposition parties are sustained in their respective positions by corruption and abuse of offices.
With the kind of governance and Opposition politics that operate in Uganda, the belief and patience of the people in clean and principled leadership have for long disappeared to the extent that even hope for change is beginning to be a dream of the uncertain and distant future.
Ugandans are busy speculating about who will succeed President Museveni and that Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and his band of vocal and clandestine supporters will defeat and replace him. Soon, time and events will tell.
The other day, the press published a rumour that Opposition leaders were in serious talks with Mr Mbabazi for a possible alliance. Yet, this is the same leader who has stood by and done very little while his own office and its senior officials have been accused or convicted of theft, embezzlement and corruption.
His own support cadres have been branded by the NRMO leaders as behaving like thugs and terrorists. Meanwhile, the current governing oligarchy has declared the rest of the Opposition parties to be deceivers and enemies of the people of Uganda. Who is who then in the leadership stakes of the Pearl of Africa?
My late friend "Sir" John Bageire who was a businessman, had a motto in his living room: "God I may be too busy today and forget you. But Lord, never forget me".
In Uganda, most politicians have forgotten Ugandans and why voters chose them but the Lord God Almighty will remember their iniquities and the plight of people who dwell in the most beautiful and picturesque country he ever created and redeem them from bad politics.
Prof Kanyeihamba is a retired Supreme Court judge. gwkany@yahoo.com
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