{UAH} It’s time to forfeit ill-gotten wealth to the state
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4:05 PM |
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The commission, tasked with investigating and inquiring into the procurement processes and how land acquired from private owners for road construction was paid for, was startled to learn that actually, Hoima-Kaiso-Tonya road is not 92 kilometres as indicated in the contracts; there were some fictitious 9 kilometres!
Shs 3.2 billion is what is spent on constructing a kilometer of a road. You can do the mathematics of how much went into private pockets out of that deal alone. Subsequent inquiries have also revealed how government has been paying private people for public land.
For instance, a land broker and brick layer who allegedly owned a public forest reserve and swamp in the area where the Entebbe-Kampala Express highway is being constructed was paid Shs 4.1bn.
Another group miraculously owned the Lubiji swamp in Busega, and the Kajjansi Forest Reserve! For that, they were paid about Shs 20bn. The common thing in all this is impunity, a culture lauded by some Ugandans.
Some people ridicule the honest managers and workers as silly and uncreative (basiru, era tebayiiya) and praise the corrupt as innovative in this era of man eateth where he worketh (abaana bayiiya, guno omulembe gwa w'okolera w'oliira).
In essence, we have turned corruption into something admirable. When someone is employed in a juicy department and fails to either construct a personal house or rental apartments in a space of one year, he is declared a ffala (totally useless person).
And finally, when his/her contract ends and he/she has nothing to show for it, he/she becomes a laughing stock. So, impunity, although risky in certain situations, is a rewarding task.
Part of this culture has been promoted by the laxity of the law enforcement agencies. The Leadership Code, for instance, which requires specified leaders to declare their incomes, assets and liabilities once every two years and explain their source, ceased to bite.
This was intended to ensure that leaders adhere to a standard of behaviour that promotes integrity and accountability in their conduct of public affairs. The Inspectorate of Government (IG), supposed to verify these declarations, is simply understaffed – perhaps deliberately.
They have no capacity to investigate these public officials and when some of their staff do, the weak ones are compromised and the inquiry either confirms the declaration or collapses midway. The sheer amount of money involved is enough to melt the hardened but underpaid investigator.
You have seen how police has been bungling the investigations in the public service pension scandal. A police officer whose annual salary for the last eight years has been Shs 3,240,000, cannot shy away at an opportunity of being 'paid' Shs 30 million to hide or obliterate records.
This is a person who, for eight years, has been ridiculed by members of his family for not being man enough, as he has no personal house. His children, too, somehow disrespect him because, whenever he leaves for work, he never returns with something for them.
Yet the other pupils with whom his children share classes in the Universal Primary Education schools always tell glowing stories about their parents; of how they return home with gorillos crisps and meat.
In the past, culprits that swindled public funds have gone away with light prison sentences. Even those with heavy sentences have not been asked to return the misappropriated money or property acquired by money diverted. So, the thieves were having easy choices.
The worst that could happen to them was a prison sentence, but not the forfeiture of their ill-gotten property. Some have chosen to face prison in order to enjoy their property upon release.
We need to do more than inquire into corruption. These public officials in Unra and all other coordinating public agencies were given these jobs as trustees for the benefit of Ugandans.
They decided to abuse that trust when they used their influence to enter into fake contracts. As a consequence, some of them acquired property out of the diverted public funds.
They have no bank loans to their names but they have property way above their known or declared income. If it can be proved that they used their positions to award dodgy deals and, as a consequence, a sweetener was passed on to them and they used it to acquire property, that property belongs to the public and should be returned to the state.
If this is done to a couple of officials, and done fairly, we are likely to see a change in service delivery. Once, Gen Salim Saleh said the corrupt should be forgiven but, instead, be asked to pay taxes on their ill-gotten property. I don't agree. We must inflict pain on the corrupt in order to make the habit less admirable.
pmkatunzi@observer.ug
The author is the finance director of The Observer Media Limited.
*A positive mind is a courageous mind, without doubts and fears, using the experience and wisdom to give the best of him/herself.
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The only way of limiting the usurpation of power by
individuals, the military or otherwise, is to put the people in charge - Capt. Thomas. Sankara {RIP} '1949-1987
*"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent
revolution inevitable"**… *J.F Kennedy
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