Refugee funds: Government assures donors on accountability
Uganda’s open door refugee policy has been hailed as one of the most generous in the world.
Currently the country hosts 1,313,802 refugees, 95% of whom live in 11 refugee settlements in the north and western part of the country while 5% live in Kampala.
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Earlier this year, a number of countries have halted funding to Uganda‘s refugee programmes due to the government‘s failure to speed up investigations into a 2018 scandal where millions of dollars of aid money were allegedly stolen.
On Tuesday during the inauguration of the Refugee Appeals Board in Kampala, the minster for Relief and Disaster Preparedness, Hilary Onek, reaffirmed government’s commitment to ensuring accountability of funds meant for refugees.
Onek noted that government is very committed to providing accountability of donor funds.
“We are really pushing our legal system to make sure that there is accountability for those posho and beans which could not be accounted for,” he said.
He lashed out at non government organisations that get funds in the name of helping refugees in Uganda but use it to fulfil their own needs.
He said there are so many fake non government organisations running around and getting money from all sources to help poor Ugandans.
He also tasked the donor to give government accountability for the activities they fund.
“We don’t know how much money they get. We don’t know how much money they are spending on the actual target, the refugees,” he said.
Since January this year 64,649 refugees have entered the country, most of them from South Sudan.
