{UAH} Museveni, Mbabazi, Muhwezi: Top most corrupt Ugandans?
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Museveni, Mbabazi, Muhwezi: Top most corrupt Ugandans?
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- 80% of perceived corrupt officials are NRM
When the NRA rebels took power on January 26, 1986, President Museveni launched a working document called The Ten-Point Programme. The document contained 10 priority areas that the new leadership committed itself to put right. Among them was the elimination of all forms of corruption. This was listed as No. 7 on the priority list, according to President Museveni’s Sowing the Mustard Seed on page 221. Today, 24 years later, the vice the NRM vowed to eliminate has come to haunt its top leadership. They are now perceived as more of corruption villains than the aspiring anti-graft heroes they looked like in 1986.
Last December the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU), a grouping of over 60 civil society organisations involved in fighting corruption, conducted a countrywide survey on who the public perceive as the most corrupt Ugandans. The results were published in the Book of Fame and Shame on the ACCU’s website. The findings involving 1,775 respondents across all regions of Uganda were amazing. Out of the list of nine people Ugandans perceive as most corrupt, eight are NRM top leaders. President Museveni is second to Security Minister Amama Mbabazi who tops the list. Former Minister of Health Jim Muhwezi is perceived as the third most corrupt Ugandan. He is followed by Minister of Trade and Tourism Kahinda Otafiire, Former Finance Minister Ezra Suruma, suspended National Social Security Fund MD David Jamwa, former State Minister for Health Mike Mukula, Transport Minister John Nasasira in that order.
How the public ranked them
Amama Mbabazi
Amama MbabaziHe is the Minister for Security. A total of 154 respondents perceived Mbabazi to be corrupt. This perception is based on his battle with members of the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises over the ‘Temangalo’ scandal in which he and his business partner Amos Nzeeyi were accused of forcing the National Social Security Fund to buy their land at about Shs11 billion through their company, Arma Ltd. Save for the minority report, the investigating Committee’s majority report recommended the censure of Mbabazi and Dr Ezra Suruma, the then Finance Minister for corruption. The report pinned the two ministers on conflict of interest and influence peddling. Mbabazi insisted he was innocent since it was a private business deal.
However reports were awash in the press about Mbabazi’s night meetings with some MPs to dissuade them from holding him culpable in the Temangalo land deal. Subsequently, Parliament declined to discuss the majority report claiming it did not have powers to enforce the Leadership Code Act. This came after President Museveni met NRM MPs at State House and reportedly told them to exonerate Mbabazi. To date, Mbabazi’s guilt or innocence is yet to be established. But basing on these incidents, the public perceive Mbabazi as among the top most corrupt Ugandans.
Yoweri Museveni
President Yoweri MuseveniHe is the President of Uganda. He had a split vote of the “famed and shamed†. One section of the public praised him as a strong freedom fighter and anti-corruption proponent since January 1986. They say he has restored rule of law, peace, respect for human rights and economic growth that have seen Uganda register enormous success.
He put in place an elaborate legal and institutional framework to fight corruption. Museveni has also set up commissions of inquiry to investigate various cases of corruption. The President has made public pronouncements of zero tolerance to corruption and ordered interdiction of some public servants suspected of corruption.
However, despite all these mechanisms, corruption has remained widespread across all sectors and departments of government. Other respondents interviewed in the ACCU survey cited the escalating corruption and impunity at the national level such the Temangalo-NSSF scandal, CHOGM, Global and GAVI Fund money. The President’s reluctance to deal with his corrupt ministers is perceived as an act of abetting corruption. The respondents cited the reappointment of Jim Muhwezi and Sam Kuteesa who had been censured from cabinet by parliament for corruption and abuse of office. Museveni reappointed them to even more powerful ministries. They further cited Museveni’s support for Mbabazi during the NSSF-Temangalo scandal even when it appeared evident that Mbabazi had influenced the deal to his favour.
Jim Muhwezi
Jim MuhweziThe grounds for his real or perceived corruption are diverse. Muhwezi was censured by Parliament in the late 1990s for abuse of office. He was again at the centre of the mismanagement of the Global Fund money to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria as well as abuse of money for Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). According to the ACCU’s Book of Fame and Shame, on August 17, 2001, Muhwezi introduced Rugasira/Tusubira & Co. Advocates to the National Medical Stores (NMS) to be contracted to collect a debt from the Health Ministry and Mulago Hospital on behalf of NMS. Ironically, the debt had already been paid. However, the law firm was paid a commission of Shs148 million from the debt they never collected.
Kahinda Otafiire
Kahinda OtafiireMaj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire is the Minister of Trade and Industry. Last year, he had a face-off with former IGG Faith Mwondha over the redevelopment of the Naguru-Nakawa Estate by Opec Prime Properties. According to the IGG, the US $300m (about Shs600 billion) project was fraudulently allocated to Opec by Otafiire’s Ministry of Local Government. Mwondha wanted disciplinary action taken against Otafiire, his predecessor Prof. Tarsis Kabwegyere and former state minister for local government Richard Nduhuura, now minister of state for health. However there is a section of Ugandans who exonerate Otafiire of any wrong doing in the Naguru deal.
Ezra Suruma
Ezra SurumaThe former Finance Minister was implicated in the Temangalo saga as the minister supervising the NSSF. Suruma was accused of having forced the now suspended NSSF boss Jamwa to purchase the controversial land belonging to Mbabazi and Nzeyi. The public still perceives Suruma’s involvement in the scandal as an act of corruption. Respondents blamed him for influence peddling that resulted in a fraudulent deal.
David Chandi Jamwa
The former Managing Director of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is implicated in the Temangalo land purchase scandal which resulted in his current suspension. Jamwa is implicated in the forensic audit on the management of the workers’ savings. The audit reveals that he spent US$8,271 of workers’ savings in casinos in Las Vegas, US$8,488 on clothes, US$9,981 on jewelry and US$244 in a gun shop.
The report further says Jamwa paid himself Shs259 million in housing allowance advances and Shs148 million in salary advances in the less than two years he headed NSSF. His deputy, Mondo Kagonyera, received Shs206 million in housing advances and salary advances of Sh30 million. By the time they were suspended in early December 2008, both officials owed NSSF Shs355 million. Although Jamwa claims to have been pressured by Suruma and Mbabazi and Nzeyi, he defended the deal arguing that the money spent (Shs24 million) per acre was lower than the market price of land in the area.
Mike Mukula
Mike MukulaThe former Minister of State for Health was jointly charged with his senior minister Muhwezi for mismanagement of GAVI funds. Mukula is also the NRM Vice Chairperson for Eastern Region. He is accused of embezzlement although he has since publicly claimed the accusations are baseless. Although the Director of Public Prosecutions has since dropped some of the charges against Mukula, Ugandans interviewed during the survey perceive his involvement in the GAVI scandal and subsequent arrest as acts of corruption. He is charged together with fellow former state minister for health Alex Kamugisha, Muhwezi and Alice Kaboyo, a cousin to First Lady Janet Museveni. Although none of them has been convicted in court, the public think their conduct and actions amounted to corruption.
John Nasasira
 Nasasira has been the Minister of Public Works since July 1996. He takes political responsibility and is blamed by the public for the sorry state of public works in Uganda. The public view is that potholes on Uganda’s roads range from circular shapes to even shapes that cannot be described. The state of Uganda vessels on Lake Victoria and the railway network adds on the list of his failures. In 2009/10 his ministry was allocated Shs1.3 trillion to improve the roads and transport system.
Before the November 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala, his ministry was given Shs91 billion for various preparatory activities including repair roads for the summit. The manner in which the road works were contracted, how the said roads were identified and the quality of works has serious queries around them. Accountability for the funds spent on such works has also been poor. The April 2008 special audit report by the Auditor General into the CHOGM expenditure unearthed many cases of poor road works, inflated costs and fraud. As the minister, Nasasira takes political responsibility and the public held him liable for the shoddy road works and poor state of Uganda’s roads.
Methodology
The perceptions are based on information from court records, reports of the Inspectorate of Government, Auditor General, Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority, the press, research reports and policy papers, Hansards of Parliament and the National Integrity Survey reports among others. The results reflect what Ugandans think about their leaders. The people’s judgement was based on whether the named leaders were directly involved in corruption scandals or took actions that abet or encourage corruption. These are named as villains of corruption.
However, the survey also revealed officials the public perceived as anti-corruption heroes who are ranked as “famed.â€
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