Govt to use taxpayers’ money to refund OPM cash
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Govt-to-use-taxpayers--money-to-refund-OPM-cash/-/688334/1642686/-/4u5r1rz/-/index.html
By Mercy Nalugo & Yasiin Mugerwa
Posted Thursday, December 13 2012 at 02:00
KampalaCabinet yesterday agreed to use taxpayers’ money to pay back billions of shillings stolen in the Office of the Prime Minister. Sources who attended the meeting said Shs38.8 billion would be withdrawn from the Consolidated Fund and refunded to development partners.
While the ministers resolved to refund the stolen donor funds on behalf of thieving government officials, it is not clear who is going to refund the money lost in the scam.
This month, the European Union ambassador to Uganda, announced that the EU, United Kingdom, the World Bank, Austria and other development partners had suspended up to $300m (about Shs806.3b) promised in budget support.
The Cabinet decision comes after the junior Finance Minister, Mr Fred Omach, told a committee of Parliament last month that after key donors froze aid, the government was grappling with cash flow problems.
But before a decision was taken in yesterday’s meeting, ministers who requested not to be named in order to speak freely, said their colleagues warned that the decision would boomerang on the government and begged Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and Vice President Edward Ssekandi “not to send them to the graves” by approving a controversial proposal by the President.
However, after Mr Mbabazi told ministers that President Museveni sanctioned the decision before traveling to Russia, they demanded that he explains their relevance in debating a matter that had already been decided.
Finance Minister Maria Kiwanuka told Cabinet that the donors had put stringent conditions on government to refund their money before they reinstate funding. Ms Kiwanuka was unavailable for comment.
In the meeting, some ministers had demanded that the government sells off assets of those implicated instead of using taxpayers’ money. According to sources, Mr Mbabazi and Ssekandi reportedly told infuriated ministers that the decision was a stopgap measure.
Uganda 46th most corrupt country in the world
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Uganda-46th-most-corrupt-country-in-the-world/-/688334/1637490/-/aif1mi/-/index.html
By John Njoroge
Posted Thursday, December 6 2012 at 02:00
Posted Thursday, December 6 2012 at 02:00
In Summary
The research done by the Corruption Perception
Index, comes amid a series of corruption scams. Kampala
A new Corruption Perception Index (CPI 2012) released on Wednesday has ranked Uganda the 46th most corrupt country in the world.
The rankings come in the wake of a massive wave of corruption scandals in government entities and private cooperations operating in Uganda. The CPI 2012 by international organization, Transparency International, measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in 176 countries and territories.
In the region, Kenya’s ranking continues to deteriorate, this time being ranked the 35th in the world, Tanzania (72) and Rwanda (124).
In August, the East African Bribery Index conducted by Transparency International, Kenya ranked Uganda with the highest level of bribery at 40.7 per cent, followed by Tanzania at 39.1 per cent, Kenya at 29.5 per cent and Rwanda 2.5 per cent.
According to the report, to access most of the essential services in Uganda, you are more likely to fork out a bribe than in any other East African country. The index score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between zero, which is highly corrupt, and 100, which is very clean.
The report comes at a time when the country is awash with revelations of abuse of office and corruption in various ministries, the police investigation department currently probing cases of alleged cases in about five ministries.
Most prominent is investigations into alleged corruption in the Office of the Prime Minister, where it is believed that more than Shs50 billion meant for peace recovery programmes in northern Uganda was embezzled.
