The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Inspector General of Government (IGG), Betty Kamya has informed parliament that the National Lifestyle Audit legal framework has been finalized and ready for discussion.
Kamya made the revelation during a meeting with Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among on Thursday. She had appeared to present two Inspectoral of Government (IG) bi-annual performance reports for 2021.
While presenting the report to the Speaker, Stephen Okiror, the Director of Research, Education and Advocacy said that the Inspectorate of Government has started implementing the lifestyle audit.
“The lifestyle audit is a proactive measure to identify and prevent corruption, fraud and other related offences and includes analysis of incomes versus expenditure, assets versus liabilities and information declared versus finances from the public,” he said.
Under the lifestyle audit, the Inspectorate shall, based on officer’s declarations, compare earnings of an official and their investment to see if they are in tandem.
Asked by Speaker Among about the specific update on the lifestyle audit, IGG Kamya said that after its launch by President Yoweri Museveni, they needed to have a legal framework in which it is operated.
She said that the IG’s Directorate of Legal Affairs has been working on the legal framework and it is ready for discussion.
“But having said that, the public has responded very positively,” said Kamya. “We have since received requests from the public to audit government officials who are known to live lifestyles that are suspicious. In a short time, someone gets a job and in two years suddenly, he is so wealthy. We are looking for people who cannot explain their source of income.”
However, the Speaker cautioned the Inspectorate to be careful on how they handle the audit.
“When you get complaints from the public, some will come from haters who will ask why Anita is driving this kind of car, why she is sleeping in this kind of house, and that kind of thing, so you need to be very careful how you do this,” she said.
In response, Kamya said that they are to verify every complaint objectively and that they are very judicious.
Earlier, the Speaker advised the Inspectorate of Government not to audit lifestyle but rather audit what has been lost.
“When you see Anita driving a posh car don’t look at it and say maybe she has stolen, no, look at it, look at the audit reports and take an action on that, not just hearsay that people are saying that the person is corrupt. Some people are genuinely hardworking. You need to look at audit reports, look at institutions and take action,” Speaker Among explained.
Recently, the Inspectorate of Government together with the Governance Transparency Institute conducted a study on the cost of corruption in Uganda and revealed that the estimated cost of corruption per year is 9.144 trillion Shillings.
In December 2021, President Yoweri Museveni asked the IGG to go slow on the planned lifestyle audit, saying that it might force the corrupt to hide stolen money abroad.
“The lifestyle audit is good but be careful because we are still lucky that our corrupt people are corrupt here. But if they realize that their lifestyle is being audited, they will instead take what they stole abroad,” Museveni said then.
Besides the lifestyle audit, the IGG reported that under the execution of the anti-corruption function during 2021, they recorded corruption complaints totaling to 1,534 out of which, 761 were against Local Governments and 773 against Ministries, Departments and Agencies-MDAs.
According to Okiror, 542 investigations were concluded, and these were valued at 589 billion Shillings and 268 million US Dollars.
“The investigations resulted into arrests of 29 public officials, dismissals of 32 public officials, caution of 38 public officials, recommendation of 307 for administrative sanctions, 29 for prosecutions and recovery of 3.7 billion Shillings,” said Okiror.
Parliament also learnt that the IG prosecuted a total of 35 cases to conclusion and 12 convictions were obtained. Okiror also said that they are prioritizing plea bargain and out of court settlement and that they recommended recovery of 1.48 billion Shillings during the year under review.
The value of assets they ordered for forfeiture is at 4.5 billion Shillings.
The report also indicates that the IG recovered 2.28 billion Shillings that was stolen and through other illicitly acquired assets as a result of the prosecution.
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