KAMPALA: The United States Mission in Uganda, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has on Thursday, May 05, 2022, launched the Strengthening Systems and Public Accountability project to support actions to improve the Government of Uganda’s accountability to its citizens and decrease the corruption that impedes economic growth and development, and negatively affects the quality of life of ordinary Ugandans.
The five-year project aims to strengthen accountability, deepen public participation in and oversight of public institutions and social services, and reduce corruption in public service sectors.
“We want every Ugandan to be able to access public services without paying a bribe, so that they can build their businesses and strengthen their communities instead of further enriching someone just for doing their job,” said U.S. Ambassador Natalie E. Brown at the project’s launch.
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The project will engage national and local level government institutions, civil society, the private sector, academia, and the media to ensure that public institutions adhere to a higher standard of integrity and performance. The project aims to empower key government institutions to improve internal processes and will work with local governments in the Albertine and Northern Uganda regions, those in refugee hosting districts, and in Kampala and surrounding districts. The project will address corruption, accountability, and performance in the education, oil and gas, and refugee support sectors, among others.
Management Systems International will implement this project in partnership with the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda, Private Sector Foundation Uganda, the Accountability Lab, and Development Gateway.
Working together, the United States and Uganda can advance accountability and create an environment in which confidence in public institutions is strong, and Ugandan businesses can thrive.
A recent study, commissioned by the Ugandan Inspectorate of Government on the Cost of Corruption, shows that every year, Uganda loses about 9.14 trillion shillings ($2.56 billion) to corruption. This is equivalent to 44 percent of total government revenue in 2019.
According to the Cost of Corruption study, approximately 2.3 trillion shillings ($650 million) is lost annually due to absenteeism in the health and education sectors.
The U.S. Ambassador said this absenteeism denies public access to services while employees get paid for work they are not doing. Additionally, about 614 billion shillings ($173 million) was lost to corruption in procurement.
Highlighting that corruption worsens poverty and aggravates inequality, as resources meant for the poor and the underprivileged are diverted to line the pockets of the corrupt, Ambassador E. Brown revealed that a research conducted at the University of Denver shows that, in the long-run, improved governance will benefit Uganda’s gross domestic product and government revenues more than will the expected proceeds from oil production in the coming years. According to their forecast model, by 2035, $2.4 billion in annual revenue generation from improved governance could surpass the $2.2 billion generated from oil production. This would lead to a cumulative increase of $33.5 billion by 2040, compared with about $26.8 billion from oil.
“This analysis shows that improved governance–including reduced corruption, enhanced transparency, and improved effectiveness–could bring stronger growth to the Ugandan economy than oil will. Think about what Uganda can do, what Uganda can become, if you can benefit from both,” Ambassador E. Brown stressed.
