Government starts review of the zero tolerance to corruption policy
Government has started a midterm review exercise to assess the implementation of the National Anti Corruption Strategy (NACS) launched together with the Zero Tolerance to Corruption Policy.
The five year plan launched in 2019 to revitalize the war against corruption in Uganda will end in 2024.
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Through the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity, under the office of the President, a midterm assessment is being conducted by government across all parts of the country to understand the extent of the implementation of the Zero Tolerance to Corruption Policy since 2019.
The assessment started off in Lango Sub region with Acholi, West Nile, Teso, Elgon, Kigezi, Rwenzori and Central regions to follow respectively.
With funding from the International Monetary Fund, the exercise will last for more than a month after which a report will be released.
and there after a monitoring and Evaluation report will be released for the way forward.
Speaking in a meeting with Dokolo district local government officials , the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity Permanent Secretary Alex B Okello said the assessment will help to establish how government is performing in the fight against corruption.
“ You will always want to check, look back, am I doing it rightly? How far have we gone? Is it in the right track or not? Normally we call it midterm assessment so that when it ends, you know that we achieved what we wanted, if it’s not going well, everybody will see things are not going well and make changes,” Okello said.
“I have been going around the country teaching about this strategy and zero tolerance to corruption, and in 1989, the first Minister for ethics was appointed to fight corruption but they started putting in place other institutions like the IGG. So, that policy started work even though it was not yet compiled and written together but now is written as a book.”
Asked about the relation between the International Monitory Fund (IMF) and the ongoing assessment, Mr Okello said IMF is one of the partners.
“IMF is one of the partners, the fight of corruption calls upon development partners to do their part. IMF asked us for an evaluation of this strategy and it is what we are doing. We didn’t have the money until IMF provided the funding to do the evaluation and government decided that the directorate of ethics carries it out.”
Dokolo district RDC, Babra Akech called for the witness protection law to be exercised so as to give chance to whistleblowers to always give testimony in courts of law for logical conclusion of all anti corruption cases reported.
“Somebody will blow the whistle and will be confident because they know they are protected. A situation can happen when witnesses are not protected and their houses are burnt or beaten for reporting corruption cases.”
The chairperson of LC3 and town council chairpersons in Dokolo district, Rashid Eton called for strict punishments for those found guilty of corruption.
“Senstization should be ongoing and the people who embezzle the money should be taken to jail because if there left free, they will continue to eat the money,”Eton said.
