Guidelines for lifestyle audit implementation in the offing

In August last year, the Inspectorate of Government launched a case study with Wakiso district local government to help identify investments established through illicit funds to help fight corruption.

During a meeting with Wakiso local government officials over the verification of leaders’ declarations, the Inspector General of Government (IGG), Beti Kamya, revealed that her office was investigating over 200 cases of corruption among civil servants.

The Inspectorate spokesperson, Ali Munira, while talking to this reporter on phone yesterday, said she has hopeful all these documents will be in place in the third quarter of the current financial year for the lifestyle audit implementation.

According to a survey done last year by the Inspectorate, the cost of corruption in Uganda had risen from sh9.1 trillion in 2019 to sh20 trillion annually. Half of this money is lost during procurement processes, under declaration of tax and utility costs among others. The other sh10 trillion is lost due to absenteeism of civil servants, especially health workers and teachers. 

Kamya said that because it is hard to catch the big fish who engage in big corruption deals, the Inspectorate plans to focus its efforts on the lifestyle audit to nab corrupt officials.

Under the lifestyle audit, the Inspectorate shall, based on officers' declarations, compare their official earnings and their investments to see if they are in tandem.

Kamya said that for an official who earns sh2m to have huge investments, they should be able to explain the source of the money. Failure to do so, Kamya said the property of such officials shall be confiscated and sold to recover Government funds. 

It should be noted that President Yoweri Museveni cautioned Kamya on the strategy, saying she should go slow as it could scare the corrupt officials from investing the stolen funds in the country and instead take it abroad.

The public has often blamed the Inspectorate for hunting down low-ranking government officials (small fish) engaged in less costly corruption tendencies yet there are top government officials often referred to as big fish who are corrupt and cause massive loss to the country.