CHIMPREPORTS
President Museveni has told the Inspector General of Government (IGG) Beti Kamya to be careful when investigating properties owned by corrupt public servants, saying thieves might be prompted to invest the loot outside Uganda.
“Be careful on lifestyle audits,” said Museveni at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds in Kampala on thursday.
He was presiding over celebrations to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day held under the theme: “Promoting Active Citizen Participation in the social accountability”
“We are lucky that the thieves are still keeping the money here,” said Museveni, adding, “They build Five Star Hotels. They will begin to take the money out, and we fail to trace.”
He called upon the IGG to focus on performance and results oriented audit of the money meant for government projects.
“This method of working with the victims has worked for the NRA. The NRA became very popular with the people because of this method,” he said
Kamya had earlier touted the lifestyle audit campaign as her silver bullet in her war against corruption targeting the big fish.
Kamya said the big shots in government are so slippery, posing a challenge to those prosecuting them in courts that require evidence beyond reasonable doubt.
Big cases
“We may fail to prove in court that you took money through corrupt means but through the Lifestyle Audit Method, the onus is on the suspect to prove beyond reasonable doubt to the judge that the wealth s/he acquired while in public of Uganda office which is not commensurate with his/her known income is legit,” said Kamya.
The IGG said her office has 5,000 active cases of corruption reported by whistleblowers valued at about Shs 500 bn including investigations on funds meant to contain the locust invasion (Shs 24bn), Covid-19 (Shs 59bn), Innovation Fund for the former Ministry of Science and Technology (Shs 78bn), renovation of Entebbe Airport (Shs17bn), SAGE money involving ghost elderly people (Shs 49.6bn) and Ministry of Agriculture (Shs 9bn) among others.
She said the cases are at different levels of completion between investigation, prosecution and appeals in courts of law.
Corruption remains endemic in Uganda, leading to levels of income inequality and poverty.
Meanwhile, Museveni urged anti-corruption agencies to inculcate a good work culture among Ugandans using the sectors of wealth creation to eliminate corruption.
“The sectors of wealth are there and well known; agriculture, services, manufacturing etc, so that people get the culture of starting small and belonging,” he said.
source https://perilofafrica.com/2021/12/museveni-says-lifestyle-audit-will-compel-thieves-to-invest-abroad.html