Some of the beneficiaries receiving the iron sheets in Namisindwa
The National Resistance Movement government has made tremendous achievements over the years in terms of security and overall development of the country.
Every Ugandan accepts the fact that the current government has surely done something visible in every part of the country. Even those who have been opposing the government are usually defeated by facts of visibility of development in the areas where they stay. It is ironic that in Uganda today, someone uses a tarmac road to drive to the radio station but when he reaches the studio will then say that the NRM government has done completely nothing.
The people who deny or disagree that the NRM government has done nothing can only convince the uninformed and those who are gullible. We would actually be far as a country if it wasn’t for the Covid-19 pandemic that affected almost every sector of the economy.
However, all our efforts of developing the country to where we would want it to be are being frustrated by too many cases of corruption. Corruption is not only in ministries but also in local governments. The most current scandal which has shocked the country is the iron sheets scandal in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).
We are left wondering how the iron sheets which were supposed to go to the vulnerable groups in Karamoja ended up in the hands of the people who are actually doing well financially. I have also seen some explanations saying that the iron sheets went to the churches and schools. One wonders how churches and schools ended up becoming vulnerable groups who should be assisted by government.
As far as I know, most churches are actually doing well than most income-generating associations because churches have assets like land and commercial buildings which they can use to generate income and facilitate church activities including buying iron sheets for themselves in case they want to build.
For the few years that I have served in local government, I have found out that most projects that are funded by the central government actually have more problems of accountability and failure to show value for money than those of the local governments.
In some instances, the contractors runway and leave projects half-done. The districts usually have nothing much to do about those projects since all the processes are done by the central government and they only come to the district for implementation and supervision. It appears and is factual that these days that the money which is meant for service delivery to the most local person ends up in the pockets of a few individuals.
That means that the money intended to bring those services to the people will no longer be available hence crippling service delivery. Buildings which cost billions of money start developing cracks even before they’re commissioned for public use. This also means that the infrastructure that we get loans for and spend billions of money to set up, cannot even last for ten years because of shoddy work.
The work of fighting corruption in the districts has been left to the resident district commissioners (RDCs). They’re the ones who ensure that services reach the public. They also struggle with greedy district officials whose interests are usually different from what the government targets.
The RDCs are also at the mercy of God because they do not have what it takes to solely defeat the bad vice of corruption that is almost eating up every sector of the government. Its also evident that some RDCs are easily compromised because of being poor and wanting to be at the same level as the civil servants who have made abnormal riches.
The only tool that RDCs use to deal with corruption is the police which also has its own challenges. These cases would be taken to courts of law for hearing and punishing those who are found guilty of stealing public funds but the courts themselves are also corrupt. The public has actually lost hope in the judiciary and that is why there are a lot of cases of mob justice in all parts of the country.
It’s even more shocking when you get reports that even the agencies which are supposed to be fighting corruption are also compromised and use their positions to negotiate with the criminals so that they can be set free, meaning a price is set, paid and the case is killed.
The iron sheets scandal in OPM is a setback to our efforts of fighting corruption as a country because it involves senior officials in the government who are supposed to be examples to the rest of the public. How shall we manage to impart discipline among civil servants and government workers of the lower rank if such kind of stories can be reported about the people we hold in high esteem?
The writer is a deputy RDC Sheema district
Source: The Observer
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