Uganda loses sh500b in graft annually

UGANDA loses about half a trillion (sh500b) annually through corruption in public procurement, experts have estimated.

“Despite the enactment of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority Act, fraud remains the most common and costly of all whitecollar crimes in Uganda,” Adriane Beinebyabo, a procurement investigations specialist, said at an integrity pact workshop at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala recently.

He argued that since corruption had increased in the last four years, money lost annually in procurement fraud, was far higher than the $150m (about sh311b) estimated by the Procurement Integrity Survey of 2006.

“Corruption in public procurement still persists with over 60% of corruption cases,” he said while presenting a paper on “Current gaps in the procurement process: How the Integrity Pacts (IP) can help bridge these gaps” at the stakeholders’ workshop organised by Transparency International.

The workshop focused on implementing the IP in public procurement to reduce corruption and the cost of doing business in the country.

Beinebyabo said according to the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) conducted by Transparency International, Uganda’s performance for the last five years had been below 3%. From 2004 to 2008, Uganda’s score on the CPI was 2.6, 2.5, 2.7, 2.8 and 2.6 out of 10 points. He said the dismal scores were an indication of rampant corruption in the country.

He added: “Over 50% of African countries never scored 5 points.” Beinebyabo noted that because of the increasing corruption in Uganda, the anti-corruption Act was being amended within just six years of its enactment.

He identified defective pricing, false claims or ‘air supply’, false accounting, conflict of interest and misuse of classified and sensitive procurement information as some of the forms of corruption in procurement. Other corrupt tendencies include nepotism, bribery, fraud and forgery, causing financial loss or property loss.

He regretted that the current anti-graft law accords too much discretion to technocrats.

Source: New Vision online