IGG Says over 6000 public workers failed to declare wealth

The IGG has expressed concern that over thousands didn’t comply with the constitutional mandate amidst the endemic corruption costing Uganda over Shs 10 trillion annually.

Accordingly, only 25,420 public leaders declared their wealth in accordance with the constitution said Beti Kamya the Inspector General of Government( IGG).

About 31,642 public officers as of March’s 31 days were directed by the IGG to conform with the leadership Code Act 2021 which obligated all public officers to occasionally reveal their assets, income and liabilities to the IGG.

However close to 6222 leaders failed and are to be summoned to be investigated why they failed to comply.

Kamya said adding that non adherents were mostly those from distant local governments.

It was also highlighted that just over 1,450 leaders in 50 ministries, Departments and Agencies ( MDA) have fully declared their wealth.

…”The biggest challenge was lack of an updated database for government leaders,”Kamya told journalists before committing that her office would work with government to ensure that creation of a single station with information about all state employees or agencies.”

She also disclosed that computer literacy amongst government officials was also a major problem to the asset declaration campaign implying low compliance in some public institutions.

“We therefore urge the ICT ministry to work with the local government to build the capacity of all state employees to ensure that they are computer literate,”Kamya appealed while at the media center.

However when asked on the relevance of wealth declaration Kamya said it was one of the tools used to ensure that leaders behave in a manner expected of them especially through responsible use of resources in their custody not to enrich themselves through illicit means.

Meanwhile the IGG said the exercise had been concluded and will now refer cases of under or non declaration to the leadership code Tribunal.

About 13 MDAs have partially declared their wealth.