Why anti corruption agencies in Uganda matter?
By

The war on corruption is on and real. In Uganda currently operating are five agencies fully fledged to combat this vice in all forms it surfaces in our day to day lives. In relevance to procurement taking the forefront is the Public Procurement and Disposal Authority(PPDA), the Office of the Inspector General of Government, the Office of the Auditor General, Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA)and State house Anti-Corruption Unit.

Following a discussion on the spotlight show at 10pm 12/04/21 on the national broadcaster  where officers from these different arms against corruption, tenderjournal.com breaks down the essence of each.
“60% of the government budget is spent on procurement that is why PPDA was established to ensure that money is spent in the right way,” said Mr. Benson Turamye  the executive director of PPDA.  As the regulatory authority the PPDA was established under the PPDA act 2003 to provide oversight of the decentralized procuring and disposing entities(PDEs) that came up under the same act. These entities include MDAs, government parastatals, city authorities among others. Further more this authority is tasked with capacity building of its different stake holders which are the PDEs, civil society and the media. PPDA also has the mandate to audit the procurement processes.
The office of the IGG currently headed by Mrs. Maria Wangadya has a three fold mandate. First is to investigate, arrest and interdict those infected with the vice of corruption in government. It’s also the ombudsman handling issues involving maladministration, lastly and most importantly the IGG has the duty to the public to enforce the leadership code of conduct as stipulated by the law of the nation.

To support the above organs is the Office of the Auditor General who in relevance to corruption provides the audit function on service delivery. According to Dr. Maxwell Paul Ogentho the Director Technical Services at Attorney General’s Office audit is likened to a lightening lamp. The different audit types expose any kind of corruption to the world. Some of these audits include:
1. Financial audit which allows to find out whether the financial information disclosed is truthful.
2. Compliance audit, this checks whether the service provider is following the right procedure.
3. Value for money, this follows up if the services delivered are worth the amount spent.
4. Forensics audit, this kind of audit gets personal. It checks for who had done what in relation to service provided
5. I.T audit, this comes up with the changing times in technology and caters for whether the systems put in place are running correctly.

Lastly there other specialized audits that may come up for example the engineering audits.
Created under the anti money laundering act 2018 is the FIA. The function of this organ is broken down into three;
i).combat financing of terrorism
ii). Financing the manufacture of weapons of mass distraction
iii). Combating money laundering
In Uganda ,the FIA specializes on capturing suspicious transactions, they receive reports, analyze and hand over this information to law enforcement.
The latest function against corruption that operates through article 19 clause 4 of the constitution which allows the President to associate power indirectly is the Anti Corruption Unit. Headed by  Lt. Col. Edith Nakalema this agency has the core function to coordinate citizens’ complaints and speed up the persecution of corrupt persons.