{UAH} BLINDFOLDING: Uganda launches five-year anti-graft strategy
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Uganda launches five-year anti-graft strategy
KAMPALA, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- As the world commemorated the International Anti Corruption Day on Tuesday, Uganda launched a five year strategy to combat the evil that is hemorrhaging state resources.
Simon Lokodo, minister of state for ethics said in a statement issued Tuesday that government is committed to fighting the malaise which he says is caused by moral decadence.
"The main driver of corruption is moral decadence which leads to impairment of one's integrity and virtues. We must therefore concertedly fight corruption," he said in a statement to mark the day under the theme -- "Fighting Corruption: a Collective Responsibility".
The country's President Yoweri Museveni over the weekend said in a radio talk show that corruption is an evil that needs to be addressed in each government sector. Massive state resources have been lost in shady public works or dubious deals carried out by government officials.
Although Uganda is said to have the best laws and policies on corruption, implementation has proved a challenge. This according to experts is breeding a culture of impunity among public servants and is slowly permeating into Ugandan society.
Lokodo acknowledged that there are enormous challenges in the fight against the vice. These challenges according to him include among others low public participation in fighting corruption, limited capacity of the institutions mandated to spearhead the fight against corruption and inadequate coordination of the Anti- corruption institutions.
This year's Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index has seen Uganda drop ten places from last year's 130th position with a point's score of 26 out of a possible 100.
The index -- an annual global aggregate catalogue captures perceptions of corruption in the public sector and this year's edition scored and ranked 177 countries and territories from around the world on the perceived level of corruption in the public sector.
The index aggregates data from a number of sources such as the World Bank, the Africa Development Bank, and the World Economic Forum.
Peter Wandera, Transparency International -- Uganda's executive director said last week that a catalogue of corruption scandals that saw donors pull out of funding this year's budget are responsible for the Uganda's dismal performance.
According to Lokodo, the fight against corruption is a collective responsibility and should not only be left to government. He said government has provided a conducive environment and policy framework for championing the fight against the evil.
He said government has developed a five year strategy dubbed National Anti-Corruption Strategy to scale up the fight against corruption. The strategy provides a national framework to guide policies, programs and activities of various government ministries, departments and local governments in fighting and eliminating corruption.
For effective implementation of the strategy, an Inter-Agency Forum bringing together government departments and agencies will be formed. Under the new strategy, government departments, civil society organization and the private sector will have to mainstream the anti-corruption actions and activities into their programs and budgets.
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