Chaired by Colonel Edith Nakalema, the State House Anti Corruption Unit (SH-ACU) made a promising presentation on November 10th, 2021, with a prime aim of building public trust in the government’s efforts to curb graft in Uganda.
The unit, whose vision is a corruption free Uganda was launched on November 10th, 2021, by president Yoweri Museveni. It has done a tremendous work in holding public servants accountable, by ensuring transparency in spending tax payers’ money.
In a letter dated November 10th, 2021 accessed by this Website to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), the unit underscored the need to improve service delivery as the core obligation of different public organisations.
“It has been established that better accountability improves service delivery. Accountability among public officers in Uganda is of great concern,” reads the note.
It was also indicated that in absence of a watchdog entity, some public servants use their positions of authority to satisfy their selfish interests.
“Some public officers use their positions to manipulate power and abuse authority for personal benefit. Public officers must be accountable to people, serve them with intergrity, responsibility, transparency, loyality and efficiency and acts with patriotism and justice,” reads the letter.
The unit therefore launched a presentation intended to highlight what has been done so far, since its inception.
The presentation indicated that since its inception, SH-ACU has been able to recover, a total of Ush.30 billion tax payers’ through prosecutions, and other measure used to compel corrupt officials refund embezzled public funds.
Due it its relentless efforts, the unit has managed to get a total of 326 people arraigned in courts of law, to answer corruption related charges. Of these, 40 people have been convicted and sentenced.
In the presentation, it was indicated that the unit has investigated different public servants for graft, including members of parliament, accounting officers, security personnels, directors of several government agencies and commissions.
This is done to ensure that there is proper accountability in their operations.
The unit has been able to obtain data and crucial information, leading to investigation and prosecution of corrupt officials, through engaging the public and instituting toll free lines for people to alert it, incase of any suspicious activity by any public official.
It has also been done through effective collaboration with other anti corruption agencies like the Criminal Investigate Department (CID) and rapid or timely response.
SH-ACU according to the presentation, has also worked around the clock, to ensure the safe return of about 600 Ugandas stranded after being trafficked to Arab countries.
It has also conclusively investigated about 10,000 cases and interdicted 200 government workers from public offices.
On the other side of the coin, the unit has faced cut-throat challenges like failure by members of the public to appear and witness in court.
The complex nature of corruption cases has also been challenging and this has necessitated more need for forensic training. It has also battled challenges of impersonation, smear campaigns and character assasinations.
SH-ACU has enjoyed a competitive and strategic advantage, over internal and external forces that are all out to fail its operations.
These include; enabling guidance from the top leadership, strong partnerships with different entities like the Police Force, the Inspector General of Government (IGG), and different government ministries like health.
It has also capitalised on healthy and productive collaboration with the media, who expose corrupt officials, hence providing the unit with vital information necessary in carrying out its operations.
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