Civil servants panic as “tough” Leadership Code amendments begin to bite

A number of civil servants especially those who were initially not on the list of those to declare their wealth have started crying foul after the Leadership Code Amendment Act 2020 came into effect.

President Museveni in April assented to the Leadership Code Amendment bill 2020 to ensure it becomes law and now requires a public officer to, within three months of starting work in the public service, declare his or her assets, incomes and liabilities to the Inspector General of Government (IGG).

Thereafter, the declaration is every five years.

The Nile Post has learnt several civil servants have started receiving reminders asking them to declare their wealth to the Inspector General of Government.

"All staff are mandated to declare their income, assets and or liabilities to the IGG effective immediately, " an email from a government agency read in part.

The panic

In the past, only political leaders civil servants on salary scale U5 and above such as permanent secretaries, high ranking Police and military officers were required to declare their wealth to the IGG but after the amendments, everyone employed in the civil service is supposed to declare their wealth.

Speaking while tabling the bill before parliament early this year, the then State Minister for Ethics and Integrity, Fr. Simon Lokodo said the law targets even the lowest salary earner in public service as one of the ways to fight corruption.

“We are going to the lowest salary earner. They were used by senior people to hide riches. The senior people thought the lower people could not be traced, so they would hide riches with them. You would be surprised that a civil servant has accumulated a lot of assets clearly more than the politicians,” Lokodo told parliament.

“Declarations will be from the parish level. Any person earning from government has to declare. Where you have more than what is commensurate to your income, it will be confiscated.”

The new law also imposes punitive measures on leaders and public officers who do not declare their wealth or who make false declarations.

According to the law, a leader who does not, without justifiable cause, comply with the request within 60 days is penalized with a warning or caution, dismissal or vacation of office.

“A person who does not file a declaration is liable to a fine not exceeding 20 currency points per month for the initial three months of non-submission of a declaration. The currency points rise to 40 per month for the next two months and then withholding of emoluments,” the new law stipulates.

One currency point is equivalent to shs20,000.

Some of the penalties for breach of the Code include forfeiture of the monetary equivalent of the excess or undeclared property to the government where a person makes false declarations.

Whereas the tough law is aimed at fighting corruption, many of the junior civil servants who were not used to declaring their civil servants are now worried about the directives of declaring their wealth since many of them got it through dubious ways.